Decoupling Advances: Pro-efficiency Utility Pricing System Spreads in Northwest
The Northwest Energy Coalition has just published a great primer on one of our favorite systemic solutions: decoupling utilities’ profits from their energy sales. Decoupling is an obscure but crucially important innovation that supercharges natural gas and electric power (and water) utilities’ incentive to help their customers conserve. Basically, it’s a pricing plan that ensures utilities still profit even if their customers buy less energy from them.
Several additional utilities in the Northwest have won decoupled rates from regulators: NW Natural in Oregon, Cascade Natural Gas in Oregon and Washington, and Spokane’s Avista—all for natural gas; and, for electricity, the Idaho Power Company.
The addition of these new utilities to the ranks of the decoupled is very good news, because the efficiency and climate protection gains that decoupling unleashes are a very big deal
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Give Your Two Cents on Transit and Taxes
Speaking of
tracking the reasons Puget Sound’s roads and transit
package failed--here’s a chance for Puget Sound residents to put in your two cents about the
Proposition 1 vote and where to go from here.
Take Sound Transit's survey here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/soundtransit
You can let Sound Transit hear your voice
on transportation solutions in the region, congestion pricing, the taxes we pay
for driving (and the costs we don’t pay), and other fascinating things (well, we think they are fascinating!) you read
about here on the Daily Score.
