The Northwest Energy Coalition’s initiative would require the state’s larger utilities to produce 15 percent of their electricity from non-hydro renewable energy sources by 2020. In specific, electricity from wind, solar and biomass.

Current law requires those utilities to offer customers the option to buy so-called “green power.” In most cases, customers pay a surcharge for the more costly wind and solar power.

While utilities are increasing their “green” energy sources, that market has yet to materialize. Not satisfied with that, the initiative backers want to make “green power” compulsory.

But there’s more. Tucked into this initiative is a provision that appears to be aimed directly at our regional network of dams. The initiative’s definition of “renewable energy” does not include hydropower, which is where the preponderance of our electricity is generated. That’s ridiculous. Saying water isn’t a renewable resource is like saying Starbucks doesn’t roast coffee.

That provision flies in the face of Gov. Gregoire’s effort to create more water storage for fish runs, electrical generation, and for cities, industries and crops. Today, the government and utilities are investing millions on safe fish passage systems and fish-friendly turbines at dams and the results are promising. The common goal is more water, more fish and more power.

Coal is a direct initiative target. Currently, coal-fired plants in our region provide about 18 percent of Washington’s electricity needs. The Coalition’s Web site states: “The initiative is also designed to help deter utilities from using coal-fired power plants to produce a greater share of the state’s electricity.”

Initiative supporters dismiss new innovations in clean coal burning technology that eliminate nearly all pollutants and they ignore the fact that some of that resulting electricity can be used to separate hydrogen from water for clean hydrogen-powered cars. In fact, President Bush’s energy program invests $1 billion in demonstration projects over the next 10 years to create the world’s first coal-based, zero-emissions electricity and hydrogen power plants.

Currently, the federal Department of Energy is funding 25 percent of a New Mexico project that will remove more than 98 percent of the sulfur and nitrogen-based contaminants and 90 percent of the mercury from coal while turning the by-products into high-quality granular fertilizer.

In Washington state, TransAlta has installed two flu gas desulphurization units at its Centralia plant that filter out more than 94 percent of the sulfur-dioxide, a contributor to “acid rain.” That power plant is now one of the cleanest coal power plants in the world, and its scrubbing process results in tons of excess commercial grade synthetic gypsum, an environmentally-friendly ingredient in “green wallboard.”

Many Washington utilities are already increasing their generation of “green power.” For example, Puget Sound Energy’s goal is 10 percent renewable power by 2013, and by the end of this year, it plans to be about halfway toward that goal. Going the extra five percent sounds simple, but the initiative makes that more difficult by eliminating hydropower as a qualified “renewable” energy source.

Green energy is no panacea. For example, wind power requires huge tracts of land, and the turbines don’t work unless wind conditions are right because unlike water, wind can’t be stored.

To some, wind farms are unsightly. For example, in Denmark there is a growing popular rebellion against giant wind machines located offshore in the shallow Baltic, and in California blades on older wind towers located in migratory paths are clobbering birds.

So there are problems with “green sources” which must be considered.

Mandates like those in the initiative ignore market-based approaches where consumers make purchasing decisions. People already demonstrate they will pay extra for “green” power, so let the market work.

The key to our energy future is to have a variety of energy sources. But mandating one form of energy and excluding others is not the answer.