Page 32 RAIN May/June 1984 Pacific Northwest Bioregion Report Energy Efficient Homes The Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) and the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) have recently launched a program to promote construction of several hundred energy-efficient homes in Oregon by this fall. As a part of their home demonstration program, the two agencies will offer cash incentives of $3,800 to $6,900 (depending on the size of the home) to homebuilders to help defray the costs of energy-saving features such as higher levels of insulation in ceilings, walls, and floors; double- and triple-glazed windows; air-infiltration barriers; and passive solar design, where practical. ODOE and BPA hope the homes will demonstrate the energy savings of building standards developed by the Northwest Power Planning Council and specified in the Northwest Power Act of 1980. (They predict that energy use in the demonstration homes will be less than one-third that of a new home built to Oregon's current building code.) Based on the program's findings, energy-efficient measures that are cost-effective may be incorporated into recommended changes to Oregon's building code in 1985. In addition, BPA-supplied utilities not implementing the tighter construction standards by 1986 may face surcharges on the electricity they use. You can obtain more detailed information by calling ODOE at 800/221-8035. Conservation and Jobs Although the BPA has been instrumental in creating the energy-efficient- home demonstration program, many Northwesterners are disappointed with BPA's role in the implementation of certain measures of the Pacific Northwest Power Planning and Conservation Act. It has been just a year since the Northwest Power Planning Council adopted, as a part of the Power Act, an energy plan called the Pacific Northwest Conservation and Electric Power Plan. It emphasizes conservation and renewables, instead of nuclear, coal, and other traditional energy sources. Pointing to the current surplus of power in the Northwest, however, BPA and other utilities claim that implementation of this plan would contribute to the surplus and seriously strain the region's economy. The Northwest Conservation Act Coalition (NCAC) disagrees with that rationale, reminding us that much of the Northwest's economic woes can be traced to misguided energy policies of the last decade. (According to NCAC, $600 million per year comes out of our pockets to pay interest payments on nuclear power plants in the Northwest.) In response to the threat to the plan, NCAC has mounted a campaign to support the plan and generate awareness in the public sector as to the benefits of such a plan to the region's economy. Its Conservation and Jobs Proposal, which details the basis for its new campaign, asserts, contrary to BPA's claim, that the present power surplus is not an obstacle to implementation of the Power Planning Council's regional conservation plan. NCAC believes the conservation plan would generate jobs and resuscitate the ailing Northwest economy. For a copy of the proposal and additional information, contact Mark Sullivan at the Northwest Conservation Act Coalition, PO Box 20458, Seattle, WA 98102; 206/624- 2875.
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