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BPA Offers Support for U.S. Energy Action Plan by Staff The Beaverton Valley Times, August 3, 2006

In an effort to help Northwest electricity users better manage their energy dollars while reducing overall energy demand, the U.S. Department of Energy's Bonneville Power Administration has thrown its support behind a new national action plan for energy efficiency.

The effort is being facilitated by the energy department and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. As part of its energy commitment, BPA seeks to boost its annual target for energy efficiency savings. The change could provide enough power to run 43,364 homes for a year.

Using a variety of strategies delivered through electric and natural gas utilities, the national action plan could help defer the need for 40 new 500-megawatt power plants, avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of 35 million vehicles, lower the costs of air pollution controls and help reduce prices for natural gas by decreasing overall demand for energy.

According to the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, Northwest electricity customers are ahead of the national averages on several energy efficiency fronts. For example, about four times more qualified compact fluorescent bulbs are sold per capita in this region than the national average.

The focus areas of BPA's efforts in energy efficiency include:

• Support for the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance's lighting campaign, "Savings with a Twist."
• Establishing and strengthening local partnerships in investments in commercial and industrial energy efficiency projects, where traditionally, the most conservation opportunities exist at a lower cost.
• Funding of regional low-income weatherization efforts, including building on recent achievements in tribal territory training that reaches a previously untouched segment of the population.