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| I-937 Passes! So Who Wins? |
As an enthusiastic supporter of solar and wind and other, non-carbon, renewable sources, I am slightly embarrassed to suggest that I-937 is flawed, perhaps fatally. Without storage, shaping and system integration, provided by BPA, there is no future for scaled up wind or solar. Pumped storage hydro power is proven, efficient and available. Hydrogen, compressed air, super capacitors, flywheels and other storage technologies are in various stages of development, not yet ready for large scale application. This bill seems to promote biofuel based primary generation where fuel tanks provide the energy storage capacity. This will be popular with biomass farmers until they run out of water. Water itself is not renewable but the energy in water is renewable by raising it to a higher elevation. Pumping water into storage and subsequent micro-hydro generation is one of the most efficient applications for solar photovoltaic resources. I-937 discourages pumped storage by not allowing renewable energy to come from withdrawal or diversions of fresh water.
I-937 promotes Biofuel technologies
Renewable YES; clean NOT VERY, cheap NOT AT ALL
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The unintended consequences of I-937 may actually retard development of wind and solar energy resources in the State of Washington by reducing investment in fresh-water based, pumped-storage systems.
The Initiative of the People process can be perceived as the essence of democracy. A few people can take a good idea and actually turn it into law. Regretably, it has seldom been a good way to write laws, since little open debate is given to the specific language of the document and it usually heavily favors one side over another.
Future arguments and clarifications are left to the lawyers and judges.
Sometimes the stated intent of an initiative is quite different from its actual effect.
Sometimes this mis-statement is intentionally done to direct voters to the authors' preferred outcome.
While 300,000 people signed the petition for I-937, it is very likely that fewer than 10% of those read beyond the INTENT Statement. If that INTENT Statement had actually reflected the text of the Initiative it would have said something more like this:
Actual text, which should be replaced, is crossed through while suggested new text is in italics.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. INTENT. This chapter concerns requirements for new energy resources. This chapter requires large utilities to obtain fifteen percent of their electricity from new renewable resources such as solar and wind; carbon-based Biodiesel and Biomass using investor-owned, Combined Cycle Microturbines smaller than 5MW. These sources will be from agriculture and logging; by 2020 and undertake cost-effective energy conservation.
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Excerpts from full text document
Boldface type indicates discussion point
Sec. 1 lines 6-7
fifteen percent of their electricity from new renewable resources such as solar and wind by 2020
Sec. 2 lines 10-12
builds on the strong foundation of low-cost renewable hydroelectric generation in Washington state
Sec. 3, 10a lines 30-31
Electricity from a generation facility powered by a renewable resource other than fresh water
Sec. 3, 10a lines 33-35
electricity from the facility is delivered into Washington state on a real-time basis without shaping, storage, or integration services;
Sec. 3, 10b lines 36-38, 1-4
Incremental electricity produced as a result of efficiency improvements completed after March 31, 1999, to hydroelectric generation projects owned by a qualifying utility and located in the Pacific Northwest or to hydroelectric generation in irrigation pipes and canals located in the Pacific Northwest, where the additional generation in either case does not result in new water diversions or impoundments.
Sec. 3, 17 lines 30-39, 1-9
"Renewable energy credit" means a tradable certificate of proof of at least one megawatt-hour of an eligible renewable resource where the generation facility is not powered by fresh water, "Renewable resource" means: (a) Water; (b) wind; (c) solar energy; (d) geothermal energy; (e) landfill gas; (f) wave, ocean, or tidal power; (g) gas from sewage treatment facilities; (h) biodiesel fuel as defined in RCW 82.29A.135 that is not derived from crops raised on land cleared from old growth or first-growth forests where the clearing occurred after the effective date of this section; and (i) biomass energy based on animal waste or solid organic fuels from wood, forest, or field residues, or dedicated energy crops that do not include (i) wood pieces that have been treated with chemical preservatives such as creosote, pentachlorophenol, or copper-chrome-arsenic; (ii) black liquor byproduct from paper production; (iii) wood from old growth forests; or (iv) municipal solid waste.
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Very soft legal language "such as" (This phrasing got the signatures)
Recognizes importance of hydropower resources while rejecting them as renewable, under this initiative
Specifically disallows "fresh water" ( no pumped storage)
Specifically disallows shaping, storage and integration for any renewable resource imported from outside the BPA region
No new water diversions or impoundments (run-of-river recycling or pumped storage reservoir) in-canal micro-hydro is promoted
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(a) Water; (pumped storage excluded by statute)
(b) Wind energy; (requires storage)
(c) Solar energy; (requires storage)
(d) Geothermal energy; (few, remote sites; technical challenges)
(e) Landfill gas; (unreliable fuel supply, not scalable, requires storage)
(f) Wave, ocean, or tidal power; (few sites; major technical challenges)
(g) Gas from sewage treatment facilities; (unreliable fuel source, not scalable)
(h) Biodiesel fuel (agricultural commodity; scalable, requires water)
(i) Biomass energy (agricultural commodity;scalable, requires water)
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