In The News
This page includes media reports and news coverage about Cascade Renewable Transmission and important developments in energy infrastructure and transmission constraint issues in the Pacific Northwest and across the United States. New informational resources will be added as they become available.
Company Wants to Bury 100-Mile Transmission Line in Columbia River; it Could Carry Solar, Wind Energy to Clark County; Cascade Renewable Transmission Partnership has Experience Building Underwater Power Infrastructure
August 30, 2024 —The Columbian by Shari Phiel — Cascade Renewable Transmission is planning to build a 100-mile-long transmission line between Bonneville Power Administration’s Big Eddy substation in The Dalles, Ore., and Portland General Electric’s Harborton substation in Portland. The 1,100-megawatt line will run through Clark, Klickitat and Skamania counties in Washington and Wasco, Hood River and Multnomah counties in Oregon.
Opinion: A Future of Reliable, Clean Energy Depends on Building out Oregon’s Power Grid
June 23, 2024 —The Oregonian by Angus Duncan — Amid rising demand for electricity, Oregon must work with other western states to urgently address the gap in transmission lines necessary to carry power from clean-energy sources to homes and businesses. We don’t need just more mile of lines. We need a strategy for linking new resources and energy storage nodes to growing loads.
Demand for Electricity in Northwest Projected to Grow 30% in Decade, Triple Previous Estimates
May 2, 2024 —The Oregon Capital Chronicle by Alex Baumhardt— Amid rising demand for electricity, Oregon must work with other western states to urgently address the gap in transmission lines necessary to carry power from clean-energy sources to homes and businesses. We don’t need just more mile of lines. We need a strategy for linking new resources and energy storage nodes to growing loads.
Surge in Electricity Demand Poses Tricky Path Ahead for PNW Utilities, Report Shows
May 2, 2024 —The Seattle Times by Conrad Swanson— Demand for electricity is spiking across the Pacific Northwest and its potential to outpace our supply in the years ahead is growing, according to a new energy forecast, detailing the tricky path ahead for utilities across the region.
Intel’s planned $36B Expansion, New Data Centers, Turbocharge PGE’s West Side Power Challenge
April 24, 2024 - Portland Business Journal by Pete Danko - Intel’s planned $36 billion expansion is one of the factors driving rising power demand forecasts in the Hillsboro area. According to Energy Consultant and former BPA Administrator Randy Hardy, Portland General Electric already has an enormous problem serving load in that area.
BPA Transmission Expansion Study Hits a ‘Brick Wall’
March 1, 2024 - Clearing Up by Steve Ernst - The Bonneville Power Administration identified 14 new transmission projects costing an estimated $3.9 billion in its 2023 TSR Study and Expansion Process, adding to its already bulging catalog of transmission projects needed to help meet state clean-energy goals and keep up with growing demand.
Is the Permitting Process for New Transmission Lines Really Broken? Analyzing three common claims of malfunction, plus proposing a new, faster way forward for the Northwest
November 9, 2023- Sightline Institute by Emily Moore - Permitting reform is the topic du jour in US climate circles. Renewable energy advocates and fossil fuel boosters alike are rallying to speed governmental approval of energy projects. At the same time, some progressives decry this effort as a misguided ruse to dismantle bedrock environmental and community protections.
How should climate leaders make sense of these debates? Just how big a barrier is permitting, really, to building the electric power grid Cascadia needs to decarbonize its economy? In short, how much should we worry about permitting?
Missing Link: A Monumental Transmission Challenge Threatens Pacific Northwest Climate Goals, Economic Growth; With Electricity Demand Forecasts Rising, The Northwest could need 56% More Transmission Capacity by 2040, According to U.S. Department of Energy Analysis
August 10, 2023 — Portland Business Journal by Pete Danko— Electric transmission lines—those giant high-voltage wires that zap electricity across long distances—recently graduated from a fringe topic to a core challenge in the quest to decarbonize Cascadia. More leaders and climate hawks now recognize the centrality of transmission capacity to meeting climate goals, but that recognition has yet to yield action. The Northwest grid is jammed, and hundreds of wind and solar projects are languishing as a result. Neither the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) nor Northwest utilities—nor anyone else, for that matter—is building the new transmission lines necessary to power millions of households and businesses in Cascadia with clean electricity. Why?
Why is it So Hard to Build New Transmission Lines? For Starter, Cascadia Has No Plans
July 20, 2023 — Sightline Institute Institute by Emily Moore — Electric transmission lines—those giant high-voltage wires that zap electricity across long distances—recently graduated from a fringe topic to a core challenge in the quest to decarbonize Cascadia. More leaders and climate hawks now recognize the centrality of transmission capacity to meeting climate goals, but that recognition has yet to yield action. The Northwest grid is jammed, and hundreds of wind and solar projects are languishing as a result. Neither the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) nor Northwest utilities—nor anyone else, for that matter—is building the new transmission lines necessary to power millions of households and businesses in Cascadia with clean electricity. Why?
How PGE Plans to Get More Clean Electricity to Meet Demand, Emissions Goals
April 5, 2023 — The Oregonian/OregonLive by Gosia Wozniacka— PGE said it will be impossible to meet the 2030 emission target without upgrading and building new transmission lines – the high-voltage power lines that move energy from generation source to customers. Transmission lines are notoriously costly and difficult to approve and experts have sounded the alarm in recent years that the current aging transmission system cannot support additional clean energy loads.
On the Grid: The Surprising Key to a Clean Energy Future; If You Care About Climate Change, You Should Care About Transmission
January 24, 2023 — Gates Notes by Bill Gates — If you care about climate change, you should care about transmission. Put simply: Transmission is key to our clean energy future. If we address the barriers standing in the way of that future, it will lead to lower emissions, cleaner air, more jobs, fewer blackouts, more energy and economic security, and healthier communities across the country.
Northwest States Need to Build New Power Lines, Fast
October 13, 2022 — Sightline Institute by Emily Moore — The Northwest seems finally poised to reap the fruits of years of hard work on climate change. Renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuels, states and clean energy developers will soon enjoy a huge influx of federal climate dollars, and climate leaders sit at the helm of many state and local governments. But much like the proverbial kingdom that was lost for want of a nail, the Northwest states’ climate ambitions may suffer defeat over something utterly mundane: not enough high-voltage power lines.
