Yakima Times

With new and improving clean energy sources on the rise across the country, this Clean Energy Week highlights hydropower as a reliable form of baseload energy.

As a proven energy source providing affordable power for over 30 million Americans, hydropower sustains low rates even in high demand. Grids operate on a meticulous balance between production and usage. On a second-by-second basis, the amount of energy produced must be the same as what is being consumed. Hydropower’s ability to respond to rapid changes in demand, and even store water for emergency use, makes it necessary for places like the Pacific Northwest that have extreme temperatures in both hot and cold months.

"Our region is fortunate to have the four Lower Snake River dams that keep our grid secure during high-demand times," states the release. Collectively, dams provide the Pacific Northwest with nearly 90% of its renewable energy while adding other benefits like transportation and port economies. The dams on the Snake River have allowed Lewiston, Idaho to be an inland seaport city through barge traffic—a mode of transportation with a smaller carbon footprint than trucks or rail—that transports goods up and down the system.

The release notes concerns about efforts to breach these dams: "Yet rather than applauding this renewable source of clean energy and transportation, the administration has thrown its weight behind the effort to breach the dams." It argues that such actions contradict climate and carbon agendas.

Studies mentioned in the release indicate that replacing these CO2-free dams would cost billions of dollars and result in rate increases affecting home and small business owners relying on community-owned utilities. "The reality we face is that, as energy demands continue to increase, we literally cannot afford to kill our most reliable form of energy."

Washington state's population alone is projected to increase by one million people in the next decade. The release emphasizes adding new energy sources rather than removing existing ones: "We need to be in the business of adding new energy to our grid, not taking it away."

Highlighting Central Washington as an example where all forms of clean energy work together to sustain a dependable grid, it concludes by stressing common-sense policies at local, state, and federal levels: "It is incumbent upon us in local, state, and federal governments to employ common-sense policies that work for consumers, producers, and our environment so that we may continue to benefit from and innovate new forms of clean, affordable, and reliable energy."