Looking at Energy in Washington State

Looking at Energy in Washington State. I’m Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report.

Washington State has done a pretty good job of being a leader when it comes to clean, renewable energy. During the recent Harvesting Clean Energy Conference, Rogers Weed, Director of Commerce for Washington State discussed how clean energy is shaking out in the state.

WEED: In my role heading up the Department of Commerce for the state, that includes both economic development for the state and also energy policy and so we certainly believe that one of the biggest long term trends that can power our state’s economy is the clean energy transition.

Weed believes that the state has done a good job when it comes to clean energy but is also hopeful for legislative solutions.

WEED: We are pretty good at energy efficiency but it’s also clear that there’s a ton more of that to be done and so I think we can certainly double down in that area. We also have a lot of natural resources in this state that can generate more renewable forms of energy and we’re hopeful that Washington DC is going to be able to break through with some kind of energy bill here and so if we can get some kind of price on carbon I think that would really help and then we just need to keep pushing the envelope on both the technologies and the economics that can move us forward.

One of the issues that many people in Washington State see is a disconnect between the east and west sides of the state.

WEED: I’m not sure there is actually. I think that Climate Solutions and the Harvesting Clean Energy conference has done a great job of bridging the two sides of the state and pointing out the opportunities that we all share to push ahead here so I think we’re actually more unified on this as a state than maybe on other topics even.

I pressed Weed on the vision of the future and what he saw from a state level in the next 10 or so years.

WEED: We will have a substantially more diverse energy portfolio than we have today because we have all the resources in the state to do that. Everything from solar energy to bio energy to even geothermal we have quite a bit of potential in the state we believe so I think we will have a more diverse energy portfolio. I hope we’ve taken the opportunity to use this transition to develop a bunch of new companies in our state that didn’t exist and I hope our economy is stronger for all that work.

Weed says that clean energy is one of the trends that will help power the states’ economy in the future. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

www.harvestcleanenergy.org