The aluminum industry, a foundation stone of the Northwest's economy for half a century, is threatened with extinction by high electric energy prices that will rise even higher next year. Kaiser Aluminum's mill on Tacoma's Tideflats isn't likely to reopen unless power prices fall. Other plants that have closed in the region also are expected to remain shut.
Electricity is about one-third the production price of aluminum.
Kaiser has shed all but about 40 percent of its production capacity at its other aluminum mill near Spokane. Other industries, mostly chemical plants and pulp and paper mills, also have suffered since prices on the West Coast's energy markets spiked to many times normal early last summer. Tacoma's Pioneer Chlor-Alkali, for example, has operated at less than full capacity since then. Energy-intensive industries located in the Northwest largely because of cheap electricity, much of it generated at hydroelectric dams in the Columbia River Basin. For a variety of reasons, including efforts to save endangered salmon, the price of operating those dams has increased.