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Bend buys former Providence building, PNW stocks rebound in a big way after Fed rate hike, Seattle loses ‘coffee capital’ status to Florida, US Strategic Petroleum Reserve hits lowest level since 1982, Ikea to close 5 US locations, coffee hits lowest price since June, Montana looks to ban Flack Cameras.

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Bonneville Power Administration asks to hike its electricity rates by 6.3% (OPB)

“After a federal court ruled earlier this year that the Bonneville Power Administration must take additional steps to protect fish populations passing dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers, the region’s hydropower giant says it’s preparing for a rate hike that could push up electricity costs by 6% or more for its customers.

Those customers — including consumer-owned utilities like Emerald People’s Utility District in Eugene and Salem Electric — say those increases will ultimately fall on their ratepayers, most of who are already facing high energy bills.

The Bonneville Power Administration announced Thursday it has begun the process that would allow it to raise its rates to make up for a $250 million revenue shortfall.

BPA, which owns about 75% of the region’s transmission lines, operates nearly three dozen hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest. It sells electricity generated at those dams at a wholesale price to more than 300 customers throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and parts of California. They include a wide range of consumer-owned utilities, electric cooperatives, and larger for-profit utilities like Portland General Electric.

The law group said the federal agency may be able to absorb the costs related to the other, and in turn prevent the proposed increases.

Instead, BPA is pushing those costs onto people who may not be able to afford higher electric bills, said Kyle Roadman, the general manager of Emerald People’s Utility District.

He said BPA’s proposed rate increase will affect Emerald PUD’s customers, “dollar for dollar,” and could add hundreds of dollars a year to the cost of electricity for some households.”

WA high court tosses natural gas measure approved by voters (WSS)

“Justices, in a 6-3 decision, found Initiative 2066 unconstitutional because it dealt with multiple unrelated subjects.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday delivered the final blow to a controversial 2024 ballot measure pushed by builders and passed by voters that sought to halt Washington’s shift away from natural gas.

The initiative filled 21 pages and contained more than a dozen sections. Some of those dealt with unwinding changes to the state energy code that offer builders incentives in the permitting process for choosing electric heat pumps – which provide both heating and cooling in the same unit – instead of natural gas furnaces.

Other provisions sought to repeal parts of a 2024 state law intended to accelerate Puget Sound Energy’s transition away from natural gas. The measure also would have prevented approval of utility rate plans that would end or restrict access to natural gas, or make it too costly, and would have erased some zero-emission goals from state law.

The Building Industry Association of Washington drew up the measure and enlisted Let’s Go Washington, a conservative political committee, to gather signatures to get it on the ballot. 

Nearly 52% of voters approved it as it passed in 34 of Washington’s 39 counties including Snohomish and Pierce.

But it never took effect. Within days of the certification of the 2024 election, a coalition including Climate Solutions, Washington Conservation Action, Front and Centered, King County and the city of Seattle sued. 

“What a win for Washington families in keeping our energy affordable and clean,” said Gregg Small, executive director of Climate Solutions. “And we welcome this timely ruling in support of clearer, more honest information on how initiatives impact our lives and communities.”

Greg Lane, the building association’s executive vice president, said dejectedly, “This is the end of the line.”

While this effort may have gained builders some flexibility in codes that was not there before, he said “fundamentally there is still the effective ban on natural gas on all new commercial and residential construction.”

Brian Heywood, founder of Let’s Go Washington, derided the decision as “shameful.”

“Today, Washington’s initiative process is weaker than it was yesterday,” he said in a statement. 

“(Voters) made their decision and exercised a constitutional right reserved for the people. Today, that decision was erased by a biased and one-sided court.”

It was a very different mood among environmentalists. They viewed the measure as a sweeping attack on a suite of policies intended to break the state’s reliance on natural gas.”

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