Opinion: A future of reliable, clean energy depends on building out Oregons power grid [Video]

Angus Duncan

Duncan is former chair of the Northwest Conservation and Power Planning Council and a member of the WestTEC Regional Engagement Committee. He lives in Portland and central Oregon.

A Washington Post headline last March warned ominously: “Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power.”

Well, maybe.

Pacific Northwest utilities are nervous, anticipating more freezes and heat domes that stress an electricity infrastructure on which our livelihoods, and sometimes our lives, depend. They see demand increases doubling and maybe doubling again. They remind themselves of the 2021 Texas winter blackouts, that caused the deaths of at least 246 people – and possibly hundreds more.

There are solutions, in abundance. There’s ample wind and solar to meet our energy and climate needs. Developers are eager to build.

But there’s a problem: how to connect all that Great Plains wind and Southwest solar to Northwest homes and businesses.

Nationwide, says the federal Energy Department, we’ll need …