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

Credit: 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.

Electric Avenues: Is Seattle ready for the electric car?

Gassing Up? Natural gas may become the next automobile fuel
in the business market.

What Price Gas? Natural gas may flood the market at the same
time a new tax structure for carbon comes along.

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.