July 16, 2003

The Northwest Power Planning Council this week implemented a name change.

The Council now will be known as the Northwest Power and Conservation Council to emphasize the conservation aspect of its energy and fish and wildlife responsibilities.

"Our new name emphasizes the Council's mission to balance the region's energy needs with fish and wildlife resources in the Columbia River Basin as intended by the Northwest Power Act," Council Chair Judi Danielson said.

The Council is an agency of the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington and is directed by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 to prepare a program to protect, mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife of the Columbia River Basin affected by hydropower dams while also assuring the region an adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply. The Power Act stresses energy conservation as a cost-effective means of meeting future demand for power. The Council's new name, like its old name, is taken from the official name of the Council in the Power Act: Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Planning Council.

Through the Council's Northwest Power Plan the region has acquired more than 1,500 megawatts of energy conservation in the last 20 years, enough for a city the size of Seattle. The Council's Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, a companion to the power plan, is the largest regional effort in the United States to mitigate the impacts of hydropower by protecting and enhancing fish and wildlife.

The Council approved the name change in January and has been preparing to implement it since then. The name change is effective at once.