Stimulate economy by supporting green power

Every now and then, the stars align. Now is such a time for green jobs and green power in the Pacific Northwest.

How, you ask, is this possible in a time of unprecedented economic recession when credit markets are frozen? And at a time when as much as $5 billion in new capital could be needed for new transmission and upgrades to enable "green power" to be developed and brought to areas that need it?

The answer lies in the more than 30-year-old vision of the late Sen. Henry M. " Scoop" Jackson — a vision in which he and others foresaw the need for financial capital to build this critical transmission infrastructure and laid the foundation for doing so in the Transmission System Act of 1974. This act authorizes the Bonneville Power Administration to borrow needed funds for "main grid transmission" and directs BPA to get the job done.

And sometimes history repeats itself. Again, now is such a time.

BPA was created in 1937 to boost the Northwest's economy with abundant, reasonably priced, clean energy. Then it was hydropower, now it is wind. To do so, BPA was directed to build critical electric transmission in a depressed economy. Today's economy is eerily similar, and a similar economic boost for today's clean energy, wind power, is needed. Access to private capital, which BPA uses when available, is significantly constrained and very costly, if available at all.

The Transmission System Act allows BPA to borrow from the U.S. Treasury Department and repay with interest the money that is needed. How many other federal projects are repaid with interest? And BPA has a 25-year track record of making timely payments. That's the good news; the bad news is BPA's current borrowing authority can't get the job done.

Additional borrowing authority is needed. These funds would allow BPA, in cooperation and potential partnership with others, to build needed transmission after careful consideration and mitigation of environmental impacts.

New and improved transmission would fix existing bottlenecks blocking wind power and allow thousands of megawatts of wind to be successfully developed, some possibly from distant Montana.

Green power means green jobs, construction jobs and economic multiplier spinoffs that benefit local communities. These jobs are needed with a 6.1-percent unemployment level that is surely growing. And they are high-paying, family wage jobs.

Under normal rules this increased BPA borrowing authority might make common sense but come up short in political sense. But we live in interesting times.

Our interesting times find us bailing out Wall Street banks, insurance companies, car companies and others, looking for ways to crack the credit crunch. Not enough has been done for Main Street and local communities.

But there is talk of Congressional action on a new stimulus plan. A stimulus plan which Sen. Barack Obama, Speaker of the U.S. House Nancy Pelosi and others have said needs to focus on "critical infrastructure" and development of green power. Putting BPA and its partners to work on transmission projects is precisely what is being talked about, and it will go a long way to helping our state's utilities access the green power they are already required to purchase under existing law.

The bottom line is that Washington state and Pacific Northwest leaders should seize this moment and press for increased BPA borrowing authority in the stimulus package. It means green jobs and green power, less reliance on carbon dioxide-producing thermal power, and reaffirms the Northwest's role as a leader in providing abundant clean power at reasonable cost. And unlike many stimulus measures, we will repay the U.S. Treasury with interest.

Jim Luce is chair of the Washington State Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. He previously worked as a senior attorney for the Bonneville Power Administration and, prior to that, as a staff assistant to the late U.S. Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson.