Puget Sound Energy’s Energize Eastside project primarily satisfies federal energy requirements, and as such it should qualify for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review.

From the Bonneville Power Administration News 2007: “BPA’s automated transmission curtailment procedure for the Puget Sound Area arises from the requirement to meet Columbia River Treaty Canadian Entitlement (U.S. generated power supplied to Canada)….Over the years increased congestion in the Puget Sound area has made return of the entitlement difficult. Several times in the 2000s, British Columbia did not receive its full entitlement.”

The 2010 BPA/ColumbiaGrid “Sammamish-Lakeside-Talbot” project was conceived to address needed trans-national grid reinforcement. In 2013, PSE “re-branded” the project as “Energize Eastside,” and began marketing it to PSE ratepayers as a solution to address local load growth.

No reference in PSE’s media campaign has ever acknowledged the larger grid reinforcement purposes of “Energize Eastside” to satisfy Columbia River Treaty “Canadian Entitlement” requirements. Why the deception? Why are PSE ratepayers being asked to bear the majority of the costs to satisfy the “Canadian Entitlement”?

Energize Eastside is a “Blended Project” – BPA grid reinforcement plus local load growth. By combining these projects, Puget Sound cities on the Eastside and Washington state are unable to evaluate the merits of each project on their own accord. Smaller, scalable projects can serve the Puget Sound eastside load growth equally well.

Russell Borgmann, Bellevue