Articles by Carol Winkel

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s panel of independent scientists recently completed a review of 71 projects to implement the Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program over the next several years, finding that just 14 of them “meet

There's a common perception that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's decision to allow Oregon, Washington, and Idaho to kill California sea lions at Bonneville Dam addresses the fish predation problem there. But right now, most of the damage is

Washington, Oregon, and Idaho fish managers are optimistic about salmon and steelhead returns to the Columbia River Basin in 2012, with some runs predicted to return in numbers not seen in decades – particularly sockeye. State fish and wildlife agency

With the spring and summer boating season approaching, the Council recently appealed to the directors of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Parks Service to use a $1 million earmark in the 2012 budget of the Fish and

In order to plan the region's energy supply, the Council maintains a comprehensive database of generating resources. The data is updated in a workbook each day, and a portion of it is made available to the public periodically."We use the

On December 21 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued new rules to curb emissions of mercury and other toxic substances from power plants that burn coal, relying on pollution controls that are already in use at more than half of

Cecil Andrus says much has changed and much has stayed the same in the environmental and energy arenas since he was governor of Idaho–first in the 1970s, and then again in the 1990s, with four years as United States Secretary

This week, Condit Dam will go down on October 26. It will be the second-highest dam removed in the United States. Built in the early 1900s on the White Salmon River in Washington state, impounding the river removed 33 miles

This past weekend, the Snohomish County Public Utility District opened the first new hydroelectric project in Washington state in nearly 20 years. The Youngs Creek facility, south of Sultan, has a generating capacity of 7.5 megawatts--enough to power about 2,000

The Council's annual report on energy efficiency savings will be presented at next week's meeting, and the numbers are very encouraging.In 2010, the region acquired 254 average megawatts of efficiency savings, the largest total ever achieved in the past three