Where There's a Drill, There's a Way

British Columbia’s massive reserves of shale-bound natural gas have recently become accessible. Will this bounty of cleaner energy change the Northwest energy marketplace for good?

By Nick Horton | May 2010 | FROM THE PRINT EDITION

Image from www.guntermarx-stockphotos.com

Washington state’s corporate lineage runs deep. From Boeing to Microsoft to Weyerhaeuser to Alcoa, corporate giants have flocked to the Pacific Northwest. They’ve come for the timber. They’ve come for the techies. But the bedrock upon which much of our state’s corporate megastructure stands is a common commodity: Historically, Washington has enjoyed some of the nation’s cheapest energy.

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Cheap energy translates to big business. Alcoa, the nation’s largest producer of aluminum, operates two smelters in Washington state. Boeing, the thousand-pound gorilla of Northwest commerce, remained in the region because of that cheap aluminum—and because of lower operating costs. And in the past decade, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others have spent hundreds of millions constructing data centers in central Washington and along the Columbia River Gorge, where power is cheaper than nearly anywhere else in North America.

Unfortunately, the cheap energy era of the mid-20th century has all but vanished. Hydropower, once the basis of the Northwest’s booming energy economy, is no longer a growing source of energy production. With the ongoing fight to save endangered salmon populations, it’s doubtful that any new dams will be built. A new generation of cleaner, safer nuclear power plants is on the drawing boards, but those could take 20 years to build. And the state’s holy grail of renewable energy—wind power—is inconsistent and not yet poised to shoulder the load of regional power production.

Meanwhile, our demand for energy continues to grow. And as the load increases, prices will undoubtedly climb.

Fuel Emissions

One major advantage natural gas has over coal as a source of electricity generation is the reduction in emissions of principal greenhouse gases.

The Pacific Northwest Power Mix

Natural gas comprises just a small slice of the region’s power generation mix, and while it emits more carbon dioxide than renewable sources, it is significantly cleaner than coal.

The Rising Demand for Gas

Annual demand for natural gas in the Pacific Northwest, from residential heating to commercial sales to industrial and power generation usages, is expected to rise significantly over the next decade.