The Seattle City Council has directed its public utility, Seattle City Light, to “move away from getting electricity from fossil fuels and nuclear energy” via a new resolution. Additionally, the city council directed City Light to “use its position on the Energy Northwest board to consider replacing its electricity with carbon-neutral alternatives.”
Currently, Energy Northwest operates the Columbia Generating Station near Richland, the Northwest’s only nuclear power plant. The nuclear power plant supplies about 4 percent of the city of Seattle’s electricity.
Ultimately, the resolution set a goal for Seattle City Light to close the Richland reactor. Never mind the fact that reactor “employs about 1,000 people and pumps $400 million into the Tri-City-area economy annually.” Via the Tri-City Herald:
The document, which the Seattle council passed unanimously, is intended to oppose new nuclear efforts and require an ongoing evaluation of existing nuclear power generation on the basis of health, safety, reliability and cost.
It also opposes the use of fossil fuels to produce electricity.
The resolution does not explicitly call for a shutdown of the Richland nuclear plant, “but it still is a very important tool that activists believe they can use to put pressure on all those who decide the fate of Columbia Generating Station,” said Councilwoman Kshama Sawant.
How does the Seattle City Council address the fact that thousands would lose their jobs?
Apparently, its little resolution suggests “retraining programs, retirement plans and reassignment to decommissioning as part of a transition to clean, healthy and renewable electricity production.”
That’s the consolation working families would receive should the whack jobs on the Seattle City Council get their way in imposing their extreme, entirely ideological agenda on the rest of the state.
And, what “alternative” sources of energy does the Seattle City Council advance?
Well, the resolution points to “advances being made in storing solar and wind power.” Of course, its unclear how city councilmembers expect to overcome the not-so-small problem of solar and wind power’s dependency on the weather.
As a spokesman for Energy Northwest told the Tri-City Herald, “[Seattle City Council members] just got a lot of really bad (information) that went unchallenged, and unfortunately, they acted on it.”
It’s strange how that keeps happening with the Seattle City Council.
