Bonneville Power Administration this year becomes the world's first utility to sponsor a residential fuel cell demonstration project, involving as many as 110 homes by 2002. Our region's connection with Asian markets is also a huge plus. Two billion people in developing nations, mostly in Asia, now are without electrical service because of the immense cost of building power grids. In many off-grid areas, solar panels are already the cheapest power. Energy analysts point to parallels in telecommunications, where many developing nations avoid building phone lines by jumping directly to wireless systems.
China is the world's largest cell-phone market.
Regional power planning back in the 1980s instituted conservation as a power source, helping spur a substantial industry specializing in energy efficiency. The Northwest, already playing an important role in the clean-energy revolution, has the brainpower, the smarts and the capacity to move into the lead. Building on these assets, we can help accelerate the global clean energy development needed to avert catastrophic global warming. For both our economy and environment, it is a golden opportunity we cannot afford to ignore. Gary Locke is governor of Washington.