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There Is an Answer to State's Energy Woes by State Senators, Bob Morton, Dan McDonald & Dino Rossi Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 8, 2001

Washington is in the midst of an energy crisis. You know three of the reasons for the energy crunch:

• The unusually dry and cold winter weather in our state has resulted in low water supplies in reservoirs behind hydroelectric dams.

• Increased competition for natural-gas supplies has caused our normally low gas prices to skyrocket.

• California's failed efforts to "reregulate" its wholesale energy market has left that state with an even greater energy mess than ours, forcing Washington and other Northwest states to ship electric power to California at a time of year when it normally sends power to us.

In the past 10 years, Washington's population has increased by more than 1 million. Combine all these additional people with the tremendous economic growth in the Puget Sound region and other parts of the state, and it's easy to see why we need a strong and dependable energy system.

Yet, over the past decade, our energy-generating capacity virtually has remained unchanged. Northwest Power Planning Council figures show that peak demand for electricity in the Northwest over the past decade has grown by 24 percent, while the power-producing capacity in the region has risen by only 4 percent.

Even before this energy crisis hit, there were ominous signs. Last year the Northwest Power Planning Council did a study predicting that by winter 2003, our region faced a one-in-four chance that electricity supplies would not meet demand, noting that it would take another 3,000 megawatts of capacity (enough to power the city of Seattle 2 1/2 times over) to reduce that risk to one in 20. And that was assuming there were no problems with California's power system. Well, guess what happened?

Despite showing leadership on conservation since the energy crisis began last fall, Gov. Gary Locke deserves some blame for our current crisis. Since he became governor just more than four years ago, Locke has failed to initiate or offer any meaningful or long-term proposals to increase power-generating capacity in Washington. He should have seen the warning signs and acted, but he didn't.

While there is no question that conservation should be part of our energy policy, we cannot conserve our way to low prices and energy independence. More power generation has to be a major part of our long-term energy policy.

Senate Republicans recently unveiled an energy package that focuses on increasing power generation capacity in Washington and helping energy consumers on limited incomes.

The people hit hardest by the higher energy prices over the past few months are our low-income neighbors and seniors on fixed incomes. Consider Cora, an elderly widow who lives by herself in a small house near Colville. On her fixed income, she is barely able to pay for food, power and energy. Cora said if power and heating prices continue to rise, she would starve or freeze. We need to take care of people like Cora and others who cannot afford the energy price hikes.

Senate Bill 5524 addresses this issue. It caps the public utility tax placed on energy sales at 105 percent of the previous year's collection, with all revenue exceeding this level returning to low-income customers and elderly customers on fixed incomes to assist in paying their energy bills.

We are fine-tuning this bill so this extra revenue can start helping those most in need sometime this year. Our measure could provide tens of millions of dollars annually.

Senate Bill 5550 aims to encourage construction of larger power-generating facilities. Currently, all energy facilities producing at least 250 megawatts must go through the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. (This measure raises the mandatory threshold from 250 megawatts to 650 megawatts. This means that five or six power plants could immediately increase power production by 20 to 50 megawatts per facility. This is enough to power cities up to the size of Bellevue and Renton combined.

Senate Bill 5731 encourages development and retrofitting of power-generating facilities. The bill calls for a state sales tax and use tax exemption for the construction of any new facility. The tax exemption also applies to improvements made to existing facilities to increase power output or reduce pollution emissions so they can run longer. Our bill does not limit the types of new energy generation to wind and solar, as the governor's plan does. There are cutting-edge types of power generation that could become integral parts of our energy system if we gave them a chance. This bill does that.

We need more power now, while being mindful of environmental concerns. We need more financial assistance to our most vulnerable neighbors now. And we need to plan for additional energy sources now. We hope our Senate colleagues, the House and governor will incorporate our package into a bipartisan plan that can help Washington battle our current energy crisis and avoid a future crisis.