Those prices are coming home to consumers. In addition to skyrocketing electricity prices, the cost of natural gas for home heating is being pushed up as demand outstrips supply. Bellevue-based Puget Sound Energy, for example, asked state regulators to approve a 25 percent rate adjustment for natural gas starting in January, the third increase in 15 months, totaling 85 percent. Gas retailers in the West have been hit particularly hard because of a new pipeline that has diverted gas produced in Alberta, Canada, to the lucrative Midwest market. The strain could become greater as natural gas is increasingly used to create electricity as well as being used as a direct fuel.
Natural gas is inevitably part of the solution.
But we don't want to become too dependent. Glyde is hoping to see wind power also play a significant role in electrical generation, offering more stable priced power that won't spew carbon-dioxide emissions and contribute to global warming. And more than a half-dozen other major wind plants are planned for Washington, Oregon and other Northwest states. But the total output of the proposed wind plants would be less than 500 megawatts. That's substantially less than the 1,600 megawatts expected to come on line from new gas plants during the next five years in Washington.