News

Do Customers of Rural Utilities Have Higher Electricity Bills?

August 31, 2016
Ben Kujala

The Northwest has over 100 different utilities, many of them in small, rural communities. How do their electricity bills compare with urban utility customers?

Montana Wind Generates More Power When The Region Needs It, But Can We Get It?

August 17, 2016
John Ollis

Of the nearly 8,700 megawatts of wind generation in the region, under 700 megawatts are in Montana and just over 5,700 megawatts of wind power is sited in the Columbia Gorge. If Montana’s wind resource is so promising, why isn’t there more?

Renewables in a Shifting Energy Landscape

August 15, 2016
Ben Kujala

One of the challenges with wind and solar generation is that the amount of generation you get in any hour depends on the weather. But there are promising solutions that could help meet that challenge.

Cold-water Species In A Warming Climate

August 12, 2016
John Harrison

A warming climate, habitat degradation, and predation by an introduced species threaten native bull trout in Montana, but a joint effort involving Montana, the Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and an an international agreement with British Columbia aims to protect and restore the cold-water species.

Building Demand for Energy Efficient Products

August 11, 2016
Carol Winkel

Carrie Cobb, market research lead at Bonneville Power Administration, talks about lighting technology and where it's headed

Retiring Northwest Coal Plants and Keeping the Lights On

August 11, 2016
Carol Winkel

The Northwest should have an adequate supply through 2020, although retiring four coal plants by 2022 means the region will have to acquire nearly 1,400 megawatts of new capacity.

Cold Water Refuge

August 11, 2016
John Harrison

Like people seeking shade outside on a hot day, salmon and steelhead look for pockets of cold water as they migrate home from the ocean to spawn, a search that will become increasingly important, and perhaps more difficult, as the climate warms.

Do Customers of Northwest Investor-Owned Utilities have Higher Electricity Bills?

August 05, 2016
Ben Kujala

The Northwest has over 100 different utilities, many of them small publicly owned utilities. Investor-owned utilities are companies owned by investors that earn a profit for providing electricity to their customers. So as a customer of an investor-owned utility in

Building on a Legacy Resource

August 05, 2016
Gillian Charles

It may be America’s “forgotten” resource, but here in the Pacific Northwest, hydropower is very much remembered and valued.

Reaping the Shale Natural Gas Bounty

July 15, 2016
Steven Simmons

Fracking has created a shale gas boom, making it possible to close coal plants. But there are trade offs, too.

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