BRIGHT FUTURE: How to keep the Northwest's lights on, jobs growing, goods moving and salmon swimming in the era of climate change.

Today, the NW Energy Coalition released an exciting new report showing that the four-state region has ample, affordable energy conservation and renewable energy resources to serve future power needs and fulfill our climate responsibilities, reviving our economy and creating thousands of good local jobs along the way.

The Northwest is justly proud of its clean-energy tradition and innovation. But we can do better, and the accelerating climate crisis tells us we must. We can power our region without burning coal, we can save endangered salmon and we can reinvigorate our economy by building a true clean-energy future.

A new report from the NW Energy Coalition, Bright Future, shows it can be done. The paper explains how, with federal and regional leadership, the Northwest electric power system can:
• Meet future energy demands
• Restore wild salmon to our rivers and ocean
• Help the transportation sector slash its global-warming emissions
• Reduce its own carbon emissions at least 15% by 2020 and 80% or more by 2050
• Create thousands of family-wage jobs and build local and regional economies

Bright Future finds that this challenge really is an opportunity to produce new, sustainable jobs,
decrease pollution, boost local economies and protect Columbia and Snake river salmon. And it finds virtually no difference — about two-thirds of a cent per kilowatt-hour — in the cost of energy to consumers of taking the clean-energy path, a tiny price to pay for enormous economic and natural-world benefits.

Click here to download the full report or a four-page summary.