The Aug. 6 letter, “Clean power plan deserves support,” extols the virtues of the plan but fails to mention the poison proviso which some Monsanto-type lawyer has slipped into the plan.
When we passed I-937 in 2006 we excluded hydro projects from being counted as renewable. This provision in the Clean Power Plan will override this exclusion: “Consistent with other types of RE, new hydroelectric power generating capacity installed after 2012 is eligible for use in adjusting a CO2 emission rate.”
There are many prime locations for hydro power which are ripe for development. For example, the soggy wasteland of the Olympic Peninsula offers the Elwha River, which has recently been prepared for use as a renewable source of electricity. The sites of other dam removals in Washington offer more opportunities: the Hunters Dam, the Goldsborough Dam, and the Growden Dam, for example.
These, of course, are only some the sites which have been previously prepared for hydro power generation. There are many other opportunities at virgin sites throughout the state for dams or diversions. These wasted resources can provide our corporate brothers with substantial CO2 offsets.
Those who love the rivers are mere mortals, they come and they go, but corporations are eternal. All they need to do to have everything their way is to keep chipping away at the obstacles, year after year after year.
God Bless, Citizens United.
Ralph Wood
Gold Bar
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