News

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.

The Council’s Power Planning Division staff is developing the Seventh Power Plan resource strategy, essentially a blueprint for acquiring generating resources and energy efficiency to meet future demand for electricity.

In October, the Council approved the latest version of its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, revised every five years. Now the Council is beginning to discuss how it will be implemented.

Last April, a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy and conducted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory identified the Pacific Northwest as having the greatest potential for new hydroelectric development in the country -- 25,226 megawatts of new

The Council’s power committee met recently to hear about energy trends for plug-in electric vehicles, data centers, utility-scale solar energy, and combined-cycle natural gas-fired power plants. The information will help in developing its Seventh Power Plan.

Two projects that aim to improve survival of steelhead and burbot the upper Columbia River Basin are moving ahead.