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Democrats' Green Energy Fantasy is Driving the Pacific Northwest Toward Blackouts by Jason Rantz Seattle Red, October 27, 2025

Democrats are also pushing to breach the Lower Snake River dams
cheered by "green justice" crusaders who value symbolism over science

A perfect storm is brewing over the Pacific Northwest's electrical grid, and the ideological pendulum swing by the Radical Left needs to be stopped before the region is crippled by frequent blackouts.

Democrats promised us a "clean energy future." What they didn't mention is that future might be dark -- literally. According to a new state-commissioned analysis by Energy and Environmental Economics (E3), the Pacific Northwest faces a massive reliability gap beginning as soon as 2026, with blackouts increasingly likely if current policies continue.

The report, presented to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission last month, should have been a wake-up call. Instead, the political class seems determined to hit the gas on green energy mandates even as the grid sputters.

E3's findings are blunt: "Load growth and continued retirements create a resource gap beginning in 2026 and growing to approximately nine gigawatts by 2030." That is essentially the entire electrical demand of Oregon. The study further warns that preferred resources like wind, solar, and batteries "make only small contributions to meeting resource adequacy needs," especially during winter cold snaps when solar generation plummets and the wind dies down.

This is bureaucrat-speak for the lights going out when it's cold. This is the direct consequence of policy driven by ideology, not reality.

EV mandates and green tunnel vision

Former Governor Jay Inslee and his progressive allies demanded an all-electric future -- banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035 and subsidizing electric heat pumps while pushing utilities to abandon natural gas.

The E3 report projects regional electricity demand growing more than 3% annually, fueled largely by EVs, data centers, and electrification mandates. But as demand surges, the same leaders are shutting down reliable power sources. Washington's clean-energy law bans coal-derived power after this year, and Democrats have imposed new restrictions on natural gas generation.

You can't electrify everything while dismantling the grid that powers it.

When the region nearly hit a breaking point during the 2024 cold snap, the Northwest imported nearly 5,000 megawatts from other states just to keep homes heated. Even then, we came dangerously close to rolling blackouts. The new E3 data makes clear that next time, we might not be so lucky.

Washington Democrats' war on dams

As if the grid weren't already strained, Democrats are also pushing to breach the Lower Snake River dams -- a move cheered by environmental activists and "green justice" crusaders who value symbolism over science.

Those dams supply clean, reliable hydropower that can't be replaced by intermittent wind or solar. Yet the Biden administration's settlement with tribes and activists calls dam removal a "road map for restoration." It's a road map straight to an energy crisis.

Hydropower isn't the problem -- it's the backbone of the Northwest grid. Eliminating it while promising to build more renewables later is like ripping out your furnace in January because you plan to install solar panels in June. The problem? You need a new roof and can't afford the panels, anyway.

Pacific Northwest energy reality check

The E3 study also highlights that meeting projected demand will require building four to five times more generation capacity every year than we've ever achieved in our region's history. The report warns of "significant headwinds" from federal policy changes, permitting delays, and rising costs. In other words, it's not happening.

But Washington Democrats don't care. They treat these warnings as footnotes while they chase the next green headline. And when the blackouts come, they'll blame the weather, climate change, or even the oil companies -- anyone but themselves.

Seattle's progressive leadership should stop virtue-signaling about climate purity and start governing like adults. That means investing in dispatchable energy, protecting hydropower, and pausing new mandates until we can generate enough electricity to sustain them. Nuclear must be on the table, too.

If we don't, the "clean energy future" the left keeps promising won't be powered by renewables. It'll be powered by candlelight.