As a planning agency, the Council is obsessed with the future. Although it is impossible to predict it, the Council endeavors to prepare the region with knowledge and tools that can be economically and efficiently employed to ensure that our
The Council's regional portfolio model is the primary tool it uses to compare the cost and risk of alternate resource strategies. It has been under redevelopment for the past several months to update its software and improve its transparency.
In developing a regional power plan, the Council evaluates resources, including energy efficiency, based on their reliability, availability, development potential, capital and operating costs, and environmental effects, to name just a few important attributes. Resources that are well established--natural gas,
Whether it's better to use natural gas directly or to generate electricity for water heaters and space heating has been a longstanding question since the Council's first power plan. Over the years, the Council has conducted numerous studies to address
The Spokane-based Upper Columbia United Tribes organization (UCUT) is seeking comments on its draft work plan to study the feasibility of reintroducing salmon and steelhead to areas of the upper Columbia River in the United States that are blocked to
For the last decade or so, the region has worked to prevent the introduction of invasive quagga and zebra mussels to Pacific Northwest waters.
The preliminary load forecast for the draft Seventh Power Plan is for a moderate rate of growth over the next 20 years of between .5 and 1 percent. Regional load is expected to increase by 2,000-5,000 average megawatts before accounting
One of the Council’s important tasks in revising its regional power plan is to develop a methodology to determine the environmental costs and benefits of resources. At its December meeting, the Council agreed on a methodology that it will use
One of the most important commitments to fish in the Council’s new, 2014 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program has the distinction of being absolutely vital yet almost impossibly complex and, at first blush, intensely bureaucratic.
