Wet weather in May throughout most of the Columbia Basin helped boost the water supply outlook for this summer.
BPA on June 5 kicked off an expedited rate case proceeding, tagged as BP-20E, to suspend its Financial Reserves Policy surcharge for the rest of the current two-year rate period.
BPA will aggressively manage vegetation in its transmission corridors, while monitoring equipment that could spark a fire, according to the agency's comprehensive Wildfire Mitigation Plan released June 4.
As the spread of COVID-19 appears to be slowing in Washington, Snohomish County PUD meter readers are back in the field, albeit with plenty of coronavirus-related safety precautions.
Additional plaintiffs have piled on to appeal FERC's May 21 ruling that affirmed an earlier decision authorizing construction of the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal in Coos Bay and its 230-mile companion pipeline in Oregon (CU No. 1955 [13]).
Grant County PUD has submitted details of the nominal 5 percent, 27 aMW upgrade of its 1,204 MW Wanapum hydro project for an advisory opinion of its validity under the state's renewables portfolio standard. If granted, the opinion request, filed May 26 with Washington's Department of Commerc…
A new marine heat wave has formed in the northern Pacific Ocean that has been waxing and waning in size since shortly after the Northeast Pacific Marine Heat Wave of 2019 officially ended on Jan. 17, 2020.
A newly released NOAA Fisheries strategic plan for the West Coast includes a few issues related to the energy industry, including some arising from offshore energy production and decommissioning hydropower facilities.
The Washington State Department of Commerce has announced $970,000 in grants from the Clean Energy Fund (CEF) under the Dairy Digester Enhancement Program.
In an effort to protect native kokanee and rainbow trout, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game is stepping up rewards for anglers catching walleye in Lake Pend Oreille in the second year of the walleye lottery program.
NOAA has picked the University of Washington to lead the new Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies, which will conduct foundational research on climate and ocean changes and impacts, help train new NOAA scientists and educate the public about their work.
The Environmental Protection Agency has released a draft Human Health Risk Assessment for the upper Columbia River, and will accept public comments on it through July 24.
BPA asked Energy Northwest to throttle output from its 1,207 MW Columbia Generating Station nuclear plant, amid increasing runoff that has increased hydro generation and a weather-driven uptick in wind generation in the federal agency's balancing authority area.
Eugene Water and Electric Board will keep the 12 MW Stone Creek hydro project on the Clackamas River in its portfolio with a pair of operation and maintenance contracts.
Federal defendants and a fishing group argued in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle against an emergency order to halt commercial Chinook fishing in southeast Alaska this summer in Wild Fish Conservancy v. Barry Thom et al. [20-417]. They said there is …
May precipitation has improved water conditions in the Willamette River basin, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now predicts most of its 13 reservoirs will fill by summer.
Jefferson County PUD has refunded a total of $133,750 to thousands of customers in an effort to dull the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The refunds came from deposits required from customers with bad or no credit history, many of whom now struggle to pay their power bills.
Letha Tawney has been nominated by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown for a four-year term on the Oregon PUC, effective June 1. This would be the first full term served by Tawney, who filled the remainder of Lisa Hardie's term after Hardie left in May 2018. The state Senate is expected to take up the no…
After revising Part I of the Fish and Wildlife Program 2020 Addendum over the last four months, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council voted to release the draft document for public comment on May 13, and scheduled a public hearing for June 15.
Design issues have delayed a safety review milestone of Portland-based NuScale's small modular reactor (SMR) design certification, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Impacts to BPA-funded projects in the Fish and Wildlife Program from constraints due to COVID-19 policies vary greatly, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's Fish and Wildlife Committee learned on May 12.
What percentage of Washington state's electricity comes from hydropower? A social media campaign by Northwest RiverPartners being launched on May 18 aims to answer that question (66 percent) and inform the public generally about hydro advantages.
The Montana PSC has reversed its earlier finding that NorthWestern Energy's application to acquire more of Colstrip Unit 4 lacked enough information to proceed.
Brent Ridge, Energy Northwest's VP for corporate services and CFO for most of the last decade, has left the joint operating agency, effective May 1, spokeswoman Carla Martinez told Clearing Up. In the four years before he held those posts, Ridge served as ENW's controller and asset manager, …
The Columbia River is expected to have normal to above normal flows this summer, while much of the Snake River will be below normal, according to the May 7 water supply forecast by NOAA's Northwest River Forecast Center.
Even if NorthWestern Energy has to split Puget Sound Energy's share of Colstrip Unit 4 with Talen Energy, NWE customers will save an estimated $41.6 million through 2039, company officials said in documents filed with the Montana PSC.
Officials in Canada and the U.S. say work on the Columbia River Treaty is continuing despite restrictions from the coronavirus.
Douglas County PUD received $250,000 from Washington state for its 5 MW renewable hydrogen production project. The money will be used for design and engineering primarily by RH2 Engineering. The PUD signed a $9.5 million contract with Hydrogenics, as lead contractor, in April. The hydrogen e…
The Western EIM generated $57.9 million benefits in the first quarter of 2020, and avoided curtailing 86,740 MWh of renewable energy during the quarter, the California ISO announced April 30.
Flathead Electric Cooperative's board of trustees voted April 22 to hold rate revenue steady for the second consecutive year, and instead approved a revenue-neutral change to the residential rate through a decrease in the energy charge and an increase in the demand charge.
FERC granted Northwest Pipeline another two years to build a pipeline lateral intended to serve Northwest Innovation Works' planned methanol plant at the Port of Kalama along the Columbia River in Washington.
Due to fishing closures prompted by the coronavirus outbreak, BPA's popular reward program that pays anglers to catch northern pikeminnow in the Snake and Columbia rivers each year will not begin on May 1, as it usually does.
FERC staff recommended, in an environmental assessment issued April 28, granting a new 50-year license to PacifiCorp's 3.9 MW Weber hydroelectric project located near Bountiful, Utah. The original license ran from 1938 to 1970, then the facility operated for the next 20 years under annual li…
BPA is looking for five-year contracts of market purchases to help serve a portion of its preference customer load in southeast Idaho during winter months.
Under a proclamation signed April 17, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee retroactively extended service protections to residential customers of consumer-owned utilities that had been given to residential customers of investor-owned utilities on March 23.
FERC staff has recommended licensing a grid-connected test facility for wave-energy conversion devices that would be located off the Oregon coast.
A commercial fisherman working on the Columbia River, near the mouth of the Yakima River, may have netted a 24- and a 36-inch gar, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation received a grant from federal agencies to help monitor for quagga and zebra mussels in the Columbia River reservoirs behind Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon lacks authority to grant the injunctive relief sought by plaintiffs in WaterWatch of Oregon et al. v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers et al. [20-413].
As the COVID-19 pandemic roils state and national economies, three Northwest IOUs have secured short-term loans, according to 8-K forms filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Seattle City Light has made it easier for customers whose income has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic to get help paying their power bills, through streamlining of its Utility Discount Program, which offers a 60 percent discount on electricity bills.
BPA has updated its workshop schedule for the 2022 power and transmission rate cases, and on Phase III issues of the agency's potential entry into the Western EIM. The changes were made in part because of COVID-19 pandemic disruptions to working environments, and in consultation with stakeho…
The EPA has agreed to issue by May 18 a plan that identifies sources of and outlines a plan to address high-temperature problems in the Columbia and Snake rivers, and will not ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review lower court decisions requiring the agency to issue the plans, known as total m…
The California ISO released its flexible-capacity needs assessment for 2021, saying its needs are affected by actual net load and three-hour ramps that are about four years ahead of the ISO's original estimates due to increasing rooftop solar.
The California ISO updated the schedule for developing its enhanced and extended day-ahead market initiatives, saying "new work conditions necessitate additional time for policy development and for stakeholders to provide feedback," the agency said in an April 16 presentation.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is on track to act by Aug. 14 on a permit application that could allow Northwest states and tribes to kill more sea lions from the mouth of the Columbia River upriver to McNary Dam, and in several tributaries.
Tech firm Susteen has scrapped its plan to use Rainbow Dam's original powerhouse as a data center, according to NorthWestern Energy, which owns the hydro facility.
The Oregon Water Utility Council and the Oregon Farm Bureau Federation filed separate motions in April, each seeking to intervene as a defendant in a U.S. District Court lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over its water allocation plans for 13 Willamette Project multipurpose da…
Puget Sound Energy's agreement to sell its 185 MW share of Colstrip Unit 4 to NorthWestern Energy is now a three-way deal.
Cascade Natural Gas has filed a general rate request with the Oregon PUC asking for a 7.2 percent, $4.9 million increase.
