The Northwest is unique in how it plans its energy future. Through the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's power plan, strategies to ensure the affordability and adequacy of the power system are developed in an open forum where the public can voice its opinion. Why is this so important? With the building of the region's first mainstem Columbia River dams in the 1930s, the Northwest would have access to inexpensive electricity for many years. But by the 1960s, increased demand led energy planners to believe that hydro-generating resources would soon be unable to keep up with the demand for electricity.

In the 1970s, the Bonneville Power Administration-the federal agency that markets the electricity generated at federal dams on the Columbia River-began working with public and private utilities in the region to develop major new generating resources, including several nuclear plants. But the projects proved to be hugely expensive and electricity rates, as a consequence, skyrocketed. Growth in electricity demand fell far short of earlier projections, in part because of the high rates. The region was left with an energy surplus in the early 1980s, eliminating the need for most of these new and expensive generating plants. Many of the projects were abandoned, and the region was left with the then-largest municipal bond default in U.S. history. Northwest customers continue to make payments on part of this debt.

Amidst the turmoil caused by this massive planning failure, Congress enacted the 1980 Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act authorizing the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington to form the Council, an interstate agency. The Act requires the Council to develop a 20-year power plan to assure the region of an adequate, efficient, economical, and reliable power system; and to develop a fish and wildlife program to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife affected by the dams. The Act also requires the Council's power plan to give first priority to cost-effective conservation; second to renewable resources; third to generating resources utilizing waste heat or generating resources of high fuel conversion efficiency; and fourth to all other resources. The power plan is updated every five years.

The experience of the 2000-2001 West Coast electricity crisis, when the wholesale power market exhibited extreme volatility and price spikes, only reinforces the importance of the Council's role. The Council doesn't set rates; it doesn't finance or build power projects. Its power plan lays the framework for the region's energy future. The question the power plan tries to answer is: What should be doing now to prepare for the future?