 |
|
|
|||||
On February 17, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek released a video assuring Oregonians that Donald Trump would not derail the progressive states efforts to combat climate change. As promised during his presidential campaign, Trump had issued executive orders during his first week in office aimed at halting new sources of wind power and freezing Biden-era funding for renewable energy. Oregon, Kotek said, had been leading the way for years on courageous state policies to fight climate change. Along with neighboring Washington state, Oregon has set an ambitious mandate for electric utilities to be carbon neutral within the next two decades. Its going to take all of us working together finding innovative solutions, no matter the obstacles, to confront the climate crisis, the governor said, and we are not turning back. But the reality is not nearly as inspiring as Kotek made it sound. For all their progressive claims, Oregon and Washington trail nearly all other states in adding new sources of renewable energy. Iowa, a Republican-led state with roughly the same population and usable volume of wind as Oregon, has built enough wind farms to generate three times as much wind power. Whats held the Northwest back is a bottleneck Oregon and Washington leaders paid little attention to when they set out to go 100% green, an investigation by ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting found: The region lacks the wiring to deliver new sources of renewable energy to peoples homes, and little has been done to change that. Northwest leaders left it to a federal agency known as the Bonneville Power Administration to arrange badly needed upgrades to an electrical grid thats nearly a century old in places. Bonneville, under a setup that is unique to the Northwest, owns most of the power lines needed to carry green power from the regions sunny and windy high desert to its major population centers. Bonneville has no state or local representation within its federally appointed bureaucracy and, by statute, operates as a self-funded business. The agency decides which energy projects can hook up based on whether its infrastructure can handle the extra load, and it decides how quickly that infrastructure gets expanded. Its glacial pace has delayed wind and solar projects under Democratic and Republican presidents alike. Of the 469 large renewable projects that applied to connect to Bonnevilles grid since 2015, only one has reached approval. Those are longer odds than in any other region of the country, the news organizations found. No major grid operator is as stingy as Bonneville in its approach to financing new transmission lines and substations needed to grow the power supply, according to industry groups that represent power producers. Efforts to bypass Bonneville didnt start until this year, when Oregon and Washington legislators considered bills to create their own state bonding authorities for upgrading the regions high-voltage network. Both bills died. The grids severe constraints are hindering the Northwest at a time when it desperately needs more electricity. Oregon and Washington lawmakers lured power-guzzling data centers with tax breaks in recent years, and the industry has helped drive electricity demand sky high. Having failed to add enough green-energy sources or any new gas-fired power, the Northwest buys electricity from elsewhere, at high prices, during extreme weather. Rates paid by customers of major Oregon utilities are now 50% higher than five years ago. The worsening energy shortage threatens millions of residents with continual rate hikes and sporadic power outagesnot to mention dashing the Northwests hopes of drastically reducing its contribution to climate change. The people who, technically speaking, are in charge of our transmission system are dropping the ball, said Oregon state Rep. Mark Gamba, a Democrat who sponsored this years failed legislation aimed at creating a state grid improvement authority. We are absolutely looking at rolling blackouts, and we are absolutely looking at not hitting any of our climate targets when it comes to energy production. Kotek declined an interview request. Kotek spokesperson Anca Matica said in a statement that the governor is open to innovative ideas to increase transmission capacity and labeled it key to achieving the states energy goals. She offered no direct response to questions about Oregons lack of progress in boosting renewables. Reuven Carlyle, the former state senator who crafted Washingtons 2019 decarbonization bill, said he was deeply cognizant of the regions transmission challenges at the time but that plans to address the problem simply slipped. Its certainly nothing to be proud of that it didnt get resolved, said Carlyle, who founded a consulting firm for climate-focused investments after leaving the Legislature. And its embarrassing that Oregon and Washington, which are such good-looking states, simply cant practically build anything in terms of energy. In the final months of the Biden administration, Bonneville announced a plan to do some grid upgrades, and agency Administrator John Hairston has said the self-funded federal agency is investing in transmission as much as it can without taking on too much debt. Bonneville responded to written questions from OPB and ProPublica by citing recent improvements to its process for connecting energy projects and noting that its not the only player responsible for growing the grid. The agency added that it remains committed to its critical mission of supporting the region with affordable, reliable and secure power. But Bonnevilles latest plans for the grid are in jeopardy. In addition to suspending all new federal wind permits, the Trump White House has added Bonneville to the long list of agencies cutting federal jobs. Three Bonneville employees, requesting anonymity for fear of retribution, said the cuts will make building out the transmission system even harder. With four years of Joe Bidens climate activism in the rearview mirror, the Pacific Northwest appears to have blown its best chance to realize its ambitions for renewable power. Projects in Limbo David Brown is a case study in the long and agonizing path to breaking ground on a Northwest solar farm. The Portland energy developer has been in the renewables business since 2003, and his firm, Obsidian Renewables, has a plan to put a vast array of solar panels on a piece of southern Oregon high desert thats the size of 3,000 football fields. Brown said its expected to produce enough energy for about 110,000 homes. Obsidian will handle everything from acquiring the land to getting permits approved, then look to sell the solar farm to an investor or utility once its ready for construction. But any power plant, whether fueled by coal, wind or sunshine, has to be wired into the electrical grid: a system of transmission lines and transformers that pools electricity and channels it to customers. While power lines crisscross the nation, power mainly gets used within the region that generates it. As in most parts of the Northwest, the nearest transmission lines Brown could plug into belong to Bonneville. He asked the agency for permision to connect his solar farm to its system in 2020. He doesnt expect approval until at least 2028. I dont know a single place in Oregon or Washington where I can connect a new solar project and get transmission. Not one, he said. One part of the holdup is that Bonneville needs to finish studying what kind of substation it will need to safely let a big new power source into the grid. Browns 400-megawatt solar farm has been through three such interconnection studies so far. The first time, Bonneville estimated Browns business would need to pay $23 million to build a substation, which Bonneville would own. The second study bumped the price to $70 million. By the third, Brown said, it was $212 million. He said the agency blamed supply chain and labor issues, in part, for the near-tripling in cost over four years. There are hundreds of projects like Browns: more than 200,000 megawatts worth of renewable energy awaiting Bonnevilles signoff, or enough to power the Northwest nearly 10 times over. One proposed wind farm has been in Bonnevilles queue for more than 16 years. Among projects 20 megawatts or bigger that were proposed in the past decade, the only one that made it through Bonnevilles waitlist was an add-on to an existing Portland General Electric wind farm that didnt require any major transmission upgrades. It won approval in 2022. The Northwest is not the only region with a backlog of projects waiting to plug in. Grid operators across the country have navigated a deluge of new wind, solar and mass-storage battery requests in recent years. Many applicants proved to be merely testing the waters, with nearly 3 in 4 ultimately pulling their plans, according to Joseph Rand, an energy researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. But other regions managed to sort out problems better than the Northwest, OPB and ProPublica found. The news organizations used data from Bonneville and from a national database compiled by researchers at the Berkeley Lab to analyze how many large renewable energy projects waiting for grid connections made it to the finish line. The data showed that for large projects proposed since 2015, Bonnevilles one approval translates to a success rate of 0.2%, the lowest rate of any region. By contrast, about 10% of new applications for major projects in the Midwest and 28% in Texas made it through. Bonneville has said one reason for the slow progress is that its waitlist is jammed up with too many speculative projectsmore dream than financial reality. (Theres no evidence that Bonneville has it worse, though; data shows that the share of developers who back out after seeking Bonnevilles approval, 76%, is close to the national average.) Renewable advocates and energy developers say Bonneville struggles to hire and retain people to process connection requests because the agency pays less than the private sector. In January, Washington U.S. Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat, and Dan Newhouse, a Republican, introduced a bill to make Bonnevilles compensation more competitive, but it hasnt moved since. To speed things up, Bonneville has halted new requests for grid connections and changed its approach to reviewing applications. Where specialists used to review proposals one at a time, in the order received, they now plan to prioritize projects that are closest to ready. The agency said the new approach will increase the number of projects that get connected while cutting processing time in half, from an expected 15 years. Bonneville said in a statement that it is confident the interconnection reforms we adopted will prove sufficient to meet our customers needs. The changes have not yet helped Brown, who has been awaiting Bonnevilles approval to start work in southern Oregon since 2020. For now, the planned solar project remains in limbo. Its gonna take me years and a couple million dollars to get land use approval, Brown said, and why do I want to get land use approval if I dont know whether or not I have transmission? Theres No Room for Your Project The predicament Brown and dozens of other wind and solar developers face is a product of the Northwests unusual history with electric power. Oregon and Washington were blessed with powerful rivers fed by abundant snow and rainfall. Beginning in the New Deal era, the federal government built dozens of hydroelectric dams and a sprawling transmission system to electrify the rural West. The regions energy supply was cheaper and emitted less carbon than the rest of the nations. Bonneville was at the helm. Even today, hydropower supplies almost 35% of Oregons electricity and more than 50% of Washingtons, according to the most recent data available. But hydroelectric dams are a finite and increasingly shaky power source. Output from existing dams dips whenever droughts sap water from the Columbia River basin. New dams are a nonstarter because dams have decimated the regions salmon populations. That leaves wind, solar and battery storage as the most promising places for the Northwest to turn as it approaches self-imposed deadlines to fully wean utilities off electricity that comes from oil, coal or gas. Bonneville has now become a barrier to accommodating the new power sources, six green energy developers told OPB and ProPublica. An agency that erected more than 4,800 miles of high-voltage transmission lines from 1960 to 1990 built fewer than 500 miles from 1990 to 2020. In the past five years, it built 1. Bonneville has the ability to borrow money, at low interest rates, for projects that would enable the grid to carry more power. Congress pushed the agency to do so in 2021, more than doubling Bonnevilles debt limit specifically to finance transmission upgrades. The chairs of the Oregon and Washington public utility commissions, in a joint 2022 letter, urged Bonneville to spend the money: The region needs BPA to be a leader in delivering a transmission system that serves the entire region. Bonneville, however, has been reluctant to take on debt. It is still paying off billions of dollars in bonds from failed nuclear plants in the 1970s. As recently as 2019, the agencys finances were so poor that some economists expected it to become insolvent. Bonnevilles transmission planners, for their part, have told OPB and ProPublica in previous interviews that they want to avoid building expensive transmission lines that no one ends up using. We cant speculate and build a transmission line to nowhere, Jeff Cook, the agencys vice president for transmission planning, said in May 2024. When Bonneville announced in the fall it would tap some of its expanded debt limit to help pay for $5 billion in transmission upgrades over a decade, renewable energy advocates characterized the work as long overdue maintenance that wouldnt provide the expansion the grid needs. Most of the work Bonneville announced was the equivalent of fixing potholes, installing some new round-abouts, doing some repaving, Spencer Gray, executive director of the Northwest & Intermountain Power Producers Coalition, said in an email. A frther frustration for wind and solar developers that is unique to Bonneville: The grid operator makes them absorb an outsize share of the cost for projects that help the transmission network accommodate their electricityand it requires a big deposit up front. Thats true even if the new power lines benefit a wide network and will be around for many generations of customers. Lately, the answer to these individual developers has been, Theres no room for your project. If you want to put this project on our system, its going to cost you this many millions of dollars to help us upgrade the system, said Sarah Edmonds, president of a coalition of utilities known as the Western Power Pool. The approach, Edmonds said, has had a chilling effect on the ability of developers to get their projects online. Michelle Manary, Bonnevilles vice president of transmission marketing and sales, said requiring up-front deposits keeps existing ratepayers from getting stuck with the tab if a developer backs out and that Bonneville has begun work on a transmission upgrade. She said other regions have more control over who pays these costs because their entire distribution networks are under one operator. Bonnevilles transmission lines are more like highways, from which electric utilities serve as exit ramps that deliver power the last mile to Northwest neighborhoods. Manary denied that Bonnevilles current way of allocating costs has stifled green energy projects. But she acknowledged the agency needs to reevaluate its policy amid the flood of applications for new projects, and she said that process is underway. Texas Is Kicking Our Ass The rest of the nation has taken a different approach to bringing green power onlinewith better outcomes. In most parts of the country, each grid has a central, independent operator, known as a regional transmission organization, typically run by a board that represents customers, electric utilities and other groups. Bonneville recently rejected joining a California-based energy market that advocates described as the Northwests best bet at accelerating the adoption of renewables. In Texas, which runs its own grid, large renewable projects applying to connect in the past decade took a median of 19 months to get the green light, or nearly two years less than the one project Bonneville approved in that time frame. California and the Midwest were also faster than Bonneville. Texas doesnt require project-by-project grid upgrades the way other grid operators do. It essentially tells developers it will connect their project, and then it figures out how to balance the added electricity after the fact. Texas and other regional grid operators spend billions more than Bonneville on transmission upgrades annually, and they spread the costs across a wider swath of customers than Bonneville does. (Bonneville says the federal agency differs so much from regional operators that theyre not a fair comparison group.) Texas brought more energy online in the past two years than any other power region. Thats helped the oil and gas powerhouse become the countrys biggest producer of wind and solar energy. Last year alone it added more than enough renewable energy to power the entire Northwest. Texas is kicking our ass, said Gamba, the Oregon state representative. Northwest lawmakers were told that theyd need to find effective ways of confronting their regions aging transmission system if they wished to phase out coal and natural gas. As Washington lawmakers debated a mandate for renewable power in 2019, Nicholas Garcia of the Washington Public Utility Districts Association testified that replacing coal plants with wind and solar would require more transmission, significantly more transmission. In 2021, when Oregon lawmakers debated their own mandate for carbon-free energy, Republicans also raised concerns that the states transmission lines were maxed out. It became one more GOP argument against the bill, in addition to saying more should be done to ensure green energy projects were built in Oregon. Numerous reportsfrom the Oregon and U.S. departments of energy, for examplesupported the assertion that heftier transmission lines were needed. Bonneville would be key to meeting that need, with one utilities lobbyist calling Bonnevilles grid the backbone for decarbonization in testimony to Oregon lawmakers. But Oregon state Rep. Pam Marsh, who led the 2021 effort, said in a recent interview she was focused on getting utilities to cut their carbon emissions and that green energy advocates werent demanding transmission improvements at the time. I was not thinking personally about the role that Bonneville might play in this, said Marsh, a Democrat representing southern Oregon. Washingtons Legislature took some action on the need for better transmission: It required the state to study the issue. The resulting 2022 report concluded that the grid was indeed inadequate but led to little in the way of solutions. Instead, lawmakers decided to require utilities to plan out transmission needs 20 years ahead rather than 10, and they created a statewide environmental review in hopes of streamlining the states approval process for transmission. It did nothing about impediments posed by Bonneville. The Legislature was a little complacent about relying on Bonneville to upgrade the grid, said Sen. Sharon Shewmake, a freshman lawmaker in 2019 when Washington enacted its energy mandate. Shewmake and Gamba both introduced legislation this year following states like Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming in creating independent authorities to finance transmission infrastructure. Gamba said he led an 80-person group of interested parties through 18 months of drafting. Democratic Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson labeled Shewmakes bill a priority. The legislation didnt make it through either states Democrat-controlled legislatures, however. Brown, the energy developer whos been awaiting Bonnevilles solar approval since 2020, said the future of the Northwests energy dreams looks dim. We dont have a prayer of meeting our heralded, flag-waving renewable energy goals, he said. The dialogue will be to blame Trump; it wont be to blame ourselves for poor planning and extremely low expectations. Tony Schick and Monica Samayoa, Oregon Public Broadcasting Ellis Simani assisted with data analysis. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. This article was produced for ProPublicas Local Reporting Network in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Category:
E-Commerce
Were often told to stand up for ourselves, have boundaries, “do you,” and often in the process, frequently encouraged to say “no.” In recent times, weve seen entire books and productivity philosophies built around the art of refusal. Saying “no” works well for establishing healthy workplace boundaries and for self-preservation, and many see it as the stamp of a mature professional. The ability to say “no” creates a respectful and safe workplace, helps avoid burnout, and importantly, elevates and empowers individuals. But there is such a thing as saying “no” too often. And as a result, you might miss out on promotions, learning opportunities, and being part of important projects. In the process, your career could stagnate. Identifying boundaries or barriers One of the ways we justify the “no” is by positioning it as a boundary. But not every “no” is a boundary. These false boundaries are obstructive barriers. Instead of protection, they can actually act as an obstruction to growth, quietly and assuredly dismantling opportunities from coming your way. Statements like “I dont have time” or “Im too busy,” without an offer of a solution, are hard stops. Using statements habitually can be problematic because it has the potential to send the wrong message to your boss and team. They stop being a reason and start becoming a reputation. We tend to decline specific projects when they appear too challenging or unfamiliar, or when they potentially expose weaknesses. Yet, research supports the idea that discomfort can be a catalyst for growth. Boundaries need to evolve with context. Static boundaries may provide short-term clarity, but dynamic boundariesthose that respond to workload, team goals, and personal valuecreate sustainability. How saying ‘no’ can impact growth and learning Saying “no” out of fear rather than necessity can cause you to miss out on developing skills, exploring new networks, and having experiences that test your resilience. Studies in developmental and organizational psychology show that growth occurs on the edge of competence, not in the comfort zone. When we say “no” to tasks that feel uncertain or emotionally risky, we shield ourselves from the very friction that sharpens our skills. Neuroscientific studies suggest that novelty and challenge stimulate learning centers in the brain. Research shows that exposure to novel environments can enhance memory consolidation and recall. Additional studies demonstrate that novelty tends to activate the dopamine system, which plays a central role in learning. That stretch project you’re tempted to decline? It may offer more return on investment for your brain than any formal training. Being aware of relational consequences The workplace is a social ecosystem with collaboration and trust built over time. Say “no” too often and you can weaken precious relationships. This can hamper teamwork and connection. To build psychological safety, which is foundational to high-performing teams, you need shared risk and shared effort. When you constantly say “no” without context or care, you inadvertently signal disengagement, which corrodes the very trust high-performing teams rely on. When you display frequent signals of detachment and resistance to take on stretch projects, you run the risk of them seeing you as a “non-participant.” When that happens, others might start to exclude you from influence, advancement, and trust-building. And when colleagues cant rely on your participation, they inevitably stop including you in pivotal conversations. Saying “yes” is a social cue that communicates engagement, cooperation, and a willingness to be part of the ensemble. The importance of saying ‘yes’ when you dont want to Sometimes and often in life, we have to do the things we dont want to do. And at work, its no different. Every job has unpalatable aspects. Even the most glamorous of positions. Its the ying that balances the jobs yang. Accepting that we sometimes have to do things we dont want to do is part of being a productive member of the workforce and your team. Helpingeven when its inconvenientsignals credibility and fosters influence across teams. Additionally, reaching long-term goals often means doing things we dont feel like doing. Too many refusals over time, and others may interpret your “no’s” as disengagement or entitlement. If youre in a leadership or management role, dont delegate parts of your job because you dont like them. You might have the authority to do that, but your team will see through it. Over time, it can erode trust and credibility, two things no leader can afford to lose. Say “yes” if you dont want to, but only if youll benefit from the learning, networking, and development. Say “yes” if it assists a team member, and if it is a critical team and business value. Dont forget that you might need the favor one day, too. The more people who see your actions, the more influence you have. When should you say ‘no’? Of course, there are times when “no” is the appropriate answer. Saying “no” when saying “yes” would compromise your values, ethics, or professional integrity. Just ensure your claim on values is genuine and not a cosmetic excuse. Otherwise, it risks becoming another false boundary. Say “no” when the cost is too high, when it leads to too much stress and burnout. If you feel burdened and overwhelmed, saying “no” can be a legitimate and smart decision. However, you still need to say it the right way. Knowing when and how to say “no” is a skill. Your “no” should never be a limitation. Saying “no” at workthe right way and for the right reasonshould empower, not restrict. Refusal isn’t inherently bad. Quite the opposite, its essential. But discernment is key. When you do say “no,” maintain goodwill. It can be a redirection rather than a rejection. You can achieve this by offering an alternate solution. This may mean a change of date, deadline, or part of the task. Follow up to make sure all went well. A well-placed “no” isnt about shutting things down, its about knowing when, where, and how to create the most value.
Category:
E-Commerce
When you reach the role of manager in an organization (particularly for the first time), you have often been there a while. Chances are, youre managing people who had roles like the one you had before you started to supervise others. The rhythms and routines of work are familiar. Despite your feelings of closeness to team members on the front lines, you’re likely to forget three key issues that can hamper your ability to succeed. These factors can be a particular problem when working with people who are new to the organization. Now youre one of ‘them’ When you become a manager, you dont feel much different than you did before your promotion. In fact, when you first step into that managerial role, you may feel less confident about going to work and doing your job than you did when you were a successful individual contributor. When you head to work, youre probably going to see most of the same people you used to work with closely. Only, something is different. You have suddenly gone from being one of us to being one of them. Thats rightnow youre on the management side of things. You may very well want to be friends with all of your superviseesparticularly because you may have been close to many of them before getting your new role. But, your responsibilities will make it difficult to have the same relationship with the front-line team as you did before, because you also have to give them assignments and evaluate their performance. It’s easy to forget the way you used to view management before you entered into that role. There are big information asymmetries Once you move into a leadership role, you are privy to a lot of information about what is happening across the organization including discussions of strategy and new initiatives. Much of this information isn’t spread to the front lines of the organization, and is often not relevant to the daily work of individual contributors. That means you need to become more effective at talking with people who do not share some of the knowledge you have. You may have to explain more of your references and remind yourself of the likely state of information of the people who report to you. In addition, while Im not a huge fan of organizational secrets, there are times when you become aware of information that is not supposed to be shared more widely. There are often good strategic reasons for a company to withhold some information from all employees until it can be communicated broadly and with a consistent message. It can be difficult to avoid spilling the beans, but you have to practice having knowledge other people might want to know, but cant hear yet. New people are still learning A common problem for many people who have developed some expertise is returning to the beginners mind. It can be difficult to remember how little you knew before you were steeped in the processes, jargon, and lore of the organization. As a manager, a significant part of your role is coaching new people. That means reminding yourself what it is like not to know anything about how the organization works. Early on, you may find that what’s wrong with new employees is that they do not have basic knowledge of how to do their jobs or how the organization functions. Remember that you probably had no clue how to do your job when you first started. What makes people so smart is not that we come preloaded with lots of understanding of how to do tasks, but rather that we are so effective at learning from others effectively. So, give your newest employees some grace. Give them a chance to adapt to their new environment. Teach a lot. Create a team where people want to let you know all the things they dont yet understand. It’s much easier to teach someone who owns the gaps in their knowledge than to have to ferret out the holes in your employees knowledge that they are reluctant to reveal.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||