Northwest aims to be 'clean energy' leader

"The main disadvantage of renewable energy is its capital costs," Cato analysts Jerry Taylor and Peter VanDoren wrote recently. To the extent that states continue to deregulate their electricity markets, they say, investors will "find it riskier to invest in capital-intensive technologies."

Supporters of renewable energy acknowledge that tax breaks, research grants, and other forms of government assistance may be necessary for now.

While President Bush and the Democrats argue over the relative merits of fuel cells versus shorter-range improvements in the efficiency of internal combustion engines, no one - including conservative Western politicians normally friendly to fossil fuels and nuclear energy - wants to eliminate federal support for renewable energy.

"Every industry needs a boost at the beginning," says Patrick Mazza, an energy analyst in Seattle. That need will diminish as the cost of renewably produced energy comes down. Today, for example, the gap between wind and natural gas in the cost of electricity production has shrunk to 1 to 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, says Mr. Mazza.

Germany, Denmark, Japan, and several other countries are aggressively marketing their renewable-energy technology. Ironically, some of this came from US companies purchased and moved abroad when this country reduced its government support in the 1980s. Advocates of renewable energy warn that the United States should not fall behind at a time when wind generating capacity around the world is growing at more than 30 percent a year.

"We should have some US production of these technologies, otherwise we'll have another trade deficit," says Mazza.

Up on the windy bluffs above the Columbia River, not far from Walla Walla, Wash.,the horizon is marked with hundreds of new state-of-the-art wind turbines built and operated by a consortium.

When fully operational, the Stateline Wind Generating Project will include 450 turbines supplying enough electricity to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes. As is happening in other parts of the country, farmers and ranchers there will earn regular income in return for having the large windmills on their land.

Cleaner, more efficient energy generation in the Northwest doesn't just mean wind-driven turbines and solar panels. Down near the California border, Klamath Falls, Ore., recently fired up its new natural gas cogeneration facility producing 484 megawatts of electrical power (enough to power about 400,000 homes).

City officials were proud to announce that it is "the cleanest fossil-fuel power plant ever constructed in the US in terms of greenhouse gas emissions."

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