Comprehensive Approach to Bi-National Regional Energy Planning in the Pacific Northwest

摘要

The Pacific NorthWest Economic Region, a statutory organization chartered by the Northwest states of Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon, and the western Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon through its Energy Working Group launched a bi-national energy planning initiative designed to create a Pacific Northwest energy planning council of regional public/private stakeholders from both Canada and the US. There is an urgent need to deal with the comprehensive energy picture now before our hoped for economic recovery results in energy price spikes which are likely to happen because the current supply will not meet predicted demand. Also recent events of August 14th have shown that our bi-national energy grid system is intricately interdependent, and additional planning for future capacity is desperately needed.