To the editor:
I stand with others who have voiced concerns here about pursuing a city-owned and city-operated energy utility. What’s proposed by Island Power is a government takeover of Puget Sound Energy’s facilities on Bainbridge Island.
Many of us believe the idea is not worthy of serious consideration. But if the city insists on studying it based on the petitions of an activist minority of residents, then it should do it right.
Spending $100,000 to study this move and seeking to gain access to additional hydro-electric power from the BPA is backward-looking. The $100,000 is both not enough for a comprehensive and objective study and too much to waste on an idea that, if pursued, would take the city in the wrong direction.
Hydro resources in the Northwest won’t grow in the future and they may, in fact, decline, especially if there are additional dams removed from the Columbia-Snake river system.
By purchasing energy from BPA, we are contributing exactly nothing to developing new renewable energy resources, nor are we addressing the concern of many Islanders of energy’s contribution to climate change.
We could be studying what’s involved in purchasing renewable futures at discounted rates through community-aggregated purchasing and have PSE deliver these renewable purchases across their lines. By doing so, we would be making a net contribution to developing new, renewable resources.
But this option is not part of what’s being considered by the city or its task force-recommended consultant, D. Hittle.
I urge the council to slow down and take time to develop a better understanding of how to participate in the future of renewable energy.
Rather than wasting $100,000 on a study that assesses energy as it was done in the 1900s and getting stuck paying a second time for capital facilities Bainbridge Island ratepayers have already paid for, we should begin to look for 21st Century paths to a renewable energy future.
This is what Island Power advocates originally said they wanted. It is not the proposal that’s being currently being considered by our city council or its energy task force.
ELAINE R. DAVIS
Winslow
