You may not have noticed, but the Tri-Cities are leading the way on clean energy | Opinion
For years, maybe decades, the Tri-Cities have been on the leading edge of efforts to create a greener and more sustainable climate. But if you didn’t live here, you wouldn’t know it. It has not been something that we have widely promoted or taken credit for, but something we surely excel at.
Many who are entering the workforce recognize the threat that the changing climate is to their future and are looking for ways to contribute to turning that around, both at work and in their personal lives. That makes the Tri-Cities a great place to live and work — in addition to all the other things that make the Tri-Cities great.
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is one of our crown jewels and many of their 6,100 employees are conducting leading-edge research into clean, sustainable fuels, improved storage batteries and strategies to operate a resilient, reliable electric grid.
Gov. Jay Inslee and the State Legislature created the Institute for Northwest Energy Futures at WSU-TC, to bridge the gap between science and policy through its systems approach to researching and analyzing clean energy transition plans for policy makers and industry and communication of those plans to consumers. Framatome’s Tri-Cities facility operates the Advanced Nuclear Fuels Center of Excellence. Energy Northwest operates a 100% carbon-free portfolio of electricity generation including hydro, wind, solar, and nuclear energy, along with battery storage.
Our community is also home to VERTical, a state-supported, industry-led innovation cluster, and the industry-led Clean Energy Supplier Alliance. Both are working with business and labor to establish our region as the center for the next-generation nuclear energy supply chain and to facilitate a thriving advanced clean energy economy. In addition, grassroots efforts such as the Mid-Columbia Energy Initiative at TRIDEC and the Tri-City Regional Chamber’s myTRI 2030 Energy Council have been valuable community forums.
Recognizing the need to get the word out about all we do, several local businesses have funded the Energy Forward Alliance (EFA). EFA is based at TRIDEC and will work to develop a consistent message about the efforts of all the clean energy players in the region, refine our clean energy vision, and deliver models for sustainability that can start here and scale elsewhere. In the near term EFA will share tools developed by local industries to measure their individual carbon footprint so other companies can review their own operations and choose to make carbon-free choices in the future.
EFA will also help communicate our clean energy vision which will help attract both clean energy workers and clean energy companies to the region. This approach – takes our strength and competitive advantage and builds on it – and will contribute to a cleaner environment and serve as an economic engine for the community.
Bob Schuetz is the CEO of Energy Northwest, a Washington state public power joint operating agency and provider of clean energy for the Pacific Northwest. Bob is a 28-year U.S. Navy veteran and has a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering, a master’s in engineering management and a master’s in economics.
