Northwest Energy Policy Project. Institutional constraints and opportunities study module V, Report on tasks 4, 5, 6, and 7. Final report
State governments, along with their counties, cities, public utility districts, and other local units have important responsibilities in the energy field. Their institutions and policy processes offer both constraints and opportunities in the exercise of these responsibilities. The purpose of this study is to explore them in four rather different aspects: Task 4, Public Participation; Task 5, State Rate-Making; Task 6, Siting Energy Facilities; Task 7, Unconventional Energy Sources. Public participation is basic to democratic systems, which strive to develop policies in accord with, or at least not adverse to, the wishes of the people; participation in decision making can be in the market place as well as in the voting booth or the halls of government. The state public utility commissions set rates for investor-owned utilities which supply some 23% of the electricity consumed in Washington, 72% in Oregon, and 92% in Idaho. Rates for electricity supplied by publicly-owned systems are established by their elected governing bodies. For these and other reasons there are many and widely varying rates charged in the Northwest. Siting of energy facilities presents a widely varying framework in the Northwest states also. Task 7 focuses on the institutional constraints and opportunities the states confront in seeking alternatives to the traditional pattern of looking to greater supplies of the conventional sources. Geothermal energy appears to have potential mainly as a heat source in this region. Energy conservation is considered as a policy alternative, although not an energy source. (MCW)
- Research Organization:
- Lewis and Clark Coll., Portland, Oreg. (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 7212478
- Report Number(s):
- NP-22397
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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