This is good news

We're producing more renewable energy than we can use!

PORTLAND, Ore. – The manager of most of the electricity in the Pacific Northwest is running such a surplus of power from hydroelectric dams that it put wind farms on notice Friday that they may be shut down as early as this weekend.

In a few months, of course, there won't be as much hydroelectric power available as the summer dry season takes its usual course. Given that this is an unusual year, it presumably doesn't warrant building additional power lines. But if this is becomes more of a regular phenomenon--it's wet and windy in the spring in the Northwest!--more power lines will have to be built to send the juice to California. Siting will be an issue, power lines are ugly, but Eastern Oregon has a number of fairly uninhabited places that don't all have the most spectacular scenery in the world. For instance, I wouldn't want a wind farm on the top of Steens Mountain, but there are other areas down in the Southern part of the state that could reasonably accommodate additional wind farms and power transmission lines.