Political promises collide with a century-old grid as the Pacific Northwest struggles to build green energy
Oregon and Washington pledged to lead the country in renewable power, but a federal bottleneck and lack of investment in transmission lines have left them trailing behind Republican-led states.
Tony Schick and Monica Samayoa report for ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting.
In short:
- Since 2015, just one large renewable energy project has been approved for connection to the Northwest’s federal power grid, run by the Bonneville Power Administration.
- Lawmakers in Oregon and Washington passed aggressive carbon-reduction mandates without ensuring the infrastructure needed to deliver new solar and wind energy existed or could be expanded.
- Bonneville, burdened by decades-old debt and a risk-averse funding model, has been slow to upgrade its outdated transmission system, stalling more than 200,000 megawatts of proposed clean energy.
Key quote:
“We don’t have a prayer of meeting our heralded, flag-waving renewable energy goals. The dialogue will be to blame Trump; it won’t be to blame ourselves for poor planning and extremely low expectations.”
— David Brown, founder of Obsidian Renewables
Why this matters:
Without sufficient transmission capacity, even the best renewable projects — solar farms on sun-soaked plateaus or wind turbines along blustery ridges — can’t connect to homes and businesses. This creates a chokepoint that not only stalls climate action but also raises costs and increases the likelihood of blackouts. Meanwhile, the centralized control of grid access by Bonneville Power Administration, a uniquely structured federal agency with little local accountability, has made it difficult for regional leaders to intervene or invest directly. As other states, including Texas and several in the Midwest, modernize their energy systems and bring renewables online faster, the Pacific Northwest’s green ambitions risk becoming more symbolic that functional.
Related: Political shifts stall $8 billion in clean energy projects as U.S. renewables boom
