No Reliable Power, No Orcas and No Climate Remedy David Lester May 12, 20119 It’s time for our state government to get real about our future electric power grid. Gov. Jay Inslee is backing a study on the removal of all the Snake River dams1. Also, there is a new law that mandates carbon neutral power generation by 2030 and elimination all fossil fuel power by 20452. Since most power in Washington is from hydroelectric (70%) and fossil fuels3 these two actions together would devastate our power supply. Sufficient nuclear power in the foreseeable future is doubtful4 and a highly distributed, unreliable grid of renewable sources just will never cut it. We will have a developing nation’s power grid. The new law is supposed to help alleviate climate change supposedly caused by CO2 emissions but Washington State’s total energy consumption from fossil fuels is a tiny fraction of the world fossil fuel burning so the law will have no effect on world (or our) climate. Removing the dams is supposed to help save salmon and therefore Orcas. The result is no effect on world climate and maybe some Orcas saved but no reliable power. Industry flees from the state and our economy is ruined.
Colombia River on border of Oregon and Washington State The Seattle Times, March 24, 2019 Pacific NW Magazine, pg 11 SB 5116 3 https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/states/washington/ 4 https://www.nap.edu/read/1601/chapter/3#16 1
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