A Montana native who has spent much of his professional career working in, regulating or advocating for the energy industry will be the next administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration.
Thousands of Tri-Cities workers at the Hanford nuclear site and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are watching a federal budget process that could determine whether a second consecutive year of deep job cuts can be avoided.
As data centers increasingly dominate conversations around the country, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and two partners have published a one-stop shop to help guide development.
Umatilla Electric Cooperative in Hermiston is one of six utilities across Washington and Oregon that have absorbed the bulk of energy demands of data centers in the region. A growing number of utilities are using booming data center demand to justify skirting climate rules in both states that mostly ban the build-out of new gas infrastructure, citing the need for regional energy reliability.
Supporters of a Goldendale pumped-hydro energy storage project have said it will help meet growing regional energy demand, and the project developers tout its potential to one day power up to half a million homes without sending harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But mounting evidence shows a large data center campus could be among the main beneficiaries of that power.
Bonneville Power Administration’s financial performance is a mixed bag at the halfway point of its fiscal year but its leaders say the agency is still on track to meet most of its end-of-year targets.
