News

The conference, scheduled October 21-23 in Spokane, includes themes of:

At its April meeting, the Council began deliberations on the Draft 2014 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program in preparation for releasing it for 60 days of public comment by the end of the month or in early May.

Elliot Mainzer, Bonneville Power Administration's newly sworn in administrator, made his first appearance at a Council meeting in March. Mainzer described his strategic prioriities for the agency, including meeting the energy efficiency targets in the Council's Sixth Power Plan.

On Friday, Council members voted unanimously to select Navigant Consulting to redevelop a key power planning tool, called the regional portfolio model, that it will use to develop its Seventh Power Plan.

If the best offense is a good defense, the Northwest is well on its way toward being ready in the event invasive freshwater mussels take hold in the Columbia River Basin, as they have in the Colorado River and some

Columbia River salmon and steelhead runs should range from average to record-breaking in 2014 depending on the species, fish managers from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho reported to the Council in March. However, the drawdown of the reservoir behind the damaged

Arne Olson, partner at Energy+Environmental Economics, reported on the work his firm completed on the implications of moving to a 50 percent renewable portfolio standard in California. The E3 study, which has received broad attention, was commissioned by the state's

Earlier in the year, the Council looked at how loads and generating resources had changed in the Northwest over the years. At its March meeting, staff put it all together and reported on the net changes in loads and resources

Several weeks ago, the Council sent a letter to BPA expressing concern that its proposed funding for energy efficiency would be insufficient to meet the targets in the Council's plan. In following BPA's capital investment review process, the Council noticed