Adams’ office announced late yesterday afternoon that PGE will make Oregon’s only coal plant coal-free by 2020, but the details about what this means for Portland’s immediate energy future are unclear.
About 40 percent of Portland’s energy comes from coal, a significant portion of that from Boardman. So if Oregon goes coal free, does that mean our energy rates will skyrocket as we fill the gap with newer, more expensive fuels?
Adams responds that Oregon’s energy rates will go up in the future whether or not the state sticks with coal. To meet state and federal environmental regulations, coal plants will need to install expensive filtering equipment, says Adams. State regulators were pushing Boardman, for example, to install $400-700 million in environmental upgrades to cut back on emissions of chemicals that cause cancer and lung problems.
“The days of reliance on cheap coal are over,” says Adams. Though PGE has not yet released the details of how it will phase out coal, Adams says the company has been working with his office and the Sierra Club to partner on Portland’s energy efficiency program Portland Clean Works, which would cut some of the need for power by cutting local energy use.
Adams’ office posted a short video today of the fleece-clad mayor stopping by Boardman on his summer vacation.
So should Adams have pushed PGE to shut down more quickly, like by the Sierra Club’s desired deadline of 2014? “I would love to see it shut down sooner and I will continue to advocate for that, but this is a huge positive step forward, a rare occurrence of a utility company shutting down a coal plant,” says Adams.
If they don’t have a plan to replace it, isn’t this just a free announcement? If you elect ME mayor, I’ll promise that everyone will be able to fly in 2020. Sure, I don’t have a plan on how to accomplish that, but…
@Reymont: Adams isn’t closing it, and while he did want it closed and was lobbying PGE to do so, he never promised that he would succeed. PGE is closing it, Adams is just complimenting them for doing so. Of course, if it was up to me, PGE would be controlled by Adams, (or more likely Leonard,) but talking about taking over PGE is a good way to lose elections so nobody has seriously discussed it recently.
Boardman was broken for most of the year a couple years ago, (and they raised our rates to pay for it. Including the people like me that buy green power specifically because I don’t like the thing.) So while the plan to replace it haven’t been hammered out exactly, it isn’t because it can’t be done, (unlike your flying thing,) but just because it hasn’t been. It is 10 years in the future though, PGE could repermit and rebuild Trojan in that amount of time, (not that I’m advocating that: My preference would be more conservation, (look up WPPSS for an example of that working,) and/or more renewables, (like this guy did: http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/inde… )) PGE’s argument for not wanting to close it was that it would cost more money to replace, and Adams was arguing that that was incorrect because of Peak Oil and climate change goals. And given that PGE’s long range energy price forecasts, (and method for arriving at those number,) are a matter of public record, (I haven’t read the most recent one, although I read them several years ago (June of 2008 to be exact,)) I know he had a good argument: PGE has not considered Peak Oil or Climate Change in their price forecasts. Only time will tell if he is correct or not on it actually being cheaper, but the argument is fundamentally sound.
Nothing His Creepy Honor ever says is cheaper, for anyone not affiliated with Goldman Sachs.
Does this mean kickball games will have to be played during daylight hours?