Renewable energy revolution (Oregon)

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http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/08/28/a1.renewable.0828.p1.php?section=cityregion

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Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants to require by 2025 that 25 percent of Oregon's power comes from pollution-free, environmentally friendly and inexhaustible sources. They could include the wind sweeping across Eastern Oregon, the debris from logging and forest-thinning sites up and down the Cascades, and the waves surging relentlessly toward Oregon's coast.

If Kulongoski's plan is adopted, it would make Oregon the 21st state with a "Renewable Portfolio Standard," or RPS. Washington voters will make a similar choice, with an initiative on their state ballot proposing a 15-percent-by-2020 RPS.

Advocates come to the debate armed with several arguments for using the government to impose a forced march toward renewable energy.
According to the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group, the state would reduce global-warming pollution by 7 million tons by adopting a renewable portfolio standard.

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Even without state-adopted renewable standards, the region is on a pace - thanks to its current rate of expansion into wind and its conservation efforts - to meet its energy needs for the next decade without adding new carbon-emitting plants that burn coal or natural gas, according to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

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