BUSINESS & AG LIFE
THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022
THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — B3
California drought expected to raise energy costs in Northwest
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
SALEM — The wholesale
price of electricity will rise in
the Northwest this summer as
drought-stricken California buys
energy from neighboring states
to off set a nearly 50% reduction
in hydropower, the U.S. Energy
Information Administration pro-
jects in a new report.
California can cover about half
of the 6 million megawatt-hour
cut in hydropower by ramping up
natural gas plants but will need to
purchase electricity on Western
power markets to make up the rest,
according to the EIA.
California’s demand for elec-
tricity will in turn put pressure
on power supplies elsewhere. The
EIA estimates the Golden State’s
drought will push up peak-demand
wholesale prices by 5% in Idaho,
Oregon and Washington to an
average of $59 per megawatt-hour.
“California has a diverse elec-
tricity fuel mix and is highly inter-
connected with the regional elec-
Capital Press, File
The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects a sharp decline this summer in
the amount of electricity generated at Shasta Dam and other hydropower facilities
in California.
tric grid, but our study shows that
a signifi cant decrease in hydro-
power generation this summer
could lead to higher electricity
prices, among other eff ects,” EIA
Administrator Joe DeCarolis said
in a statement.
The EIA’s report supplemented
a forecast on retail electricity
prices. Assuming a cooler summer
than last year, the EIA projected
customers will pay about 4% more
in the West than in 2021, though
rates will vary widely by utility.
Wholesale prices are more vol-
atile than retail rates, refl ecting
the ever-changing demand for and
supply of energy, especially on the
hottest summer days, according to
the EIA.
Drought blankets California.
About 60% of the state is in
an “extreme” or “exceptional”
drought, the two worst catego-
ries, according to the U.S. Drought
Monitor.
California’s snowpack was 54%
of normal on April 1. With little
snow to melt into already lower
reservoirs, the state will generate
48% less hydroelectricity between
June 1 and Sept. 30 than in a non-
drought year, the EIA forecasts.
Normally, hydroelectricity
meets about 15% of the state’s
summer energy needs. This
year, it will provide 8%, the EIA
projects.
To partially fi ll the gap, Cal-
ifornia will use more electricity
generated by natural gas. The EIA
estimated carbon emissions from
the energy sector will increase by
978,000 tons, or 6%.
Even then, the state will need to
import another 2.9 million mega-
watts-hours. California already
buys one-third of its power from
out-of-state sources.
The EIA projected California
will generate about as much
hydropower this summer as it did
in 2015, another poor water year.
The state, however, has less
ability than it did seven years ago
to ramp up during peak demands
to off set the lost of hydropower,
according to the EIA.
California has added solar
power and battery storage since
2015, but 58% of the state’s natural
gas-fi red power capacity was shut
down.
The EIA said droughts in Ari-
zona and Nevada also could push
up the cost of electricity. Prices
could be held down if retail cus-
tomers adjust and use less elec-
tricity during peak times,
according to the report.
Oregon State research fi nds ways to slow wildfi res in critical sagebrush rangelands
By ALEX BAUMHARDT
Oregon Capital Chronicle
CORVALLIS — Nearly
45% of historic sagebrush
ecosystems in the Great
Basin — 200,000 square
miles of California, Idaho,
Nevada, Oregon, Utah and
Wyoming — have been lost
to invasive plants, grasses
and wildfi res, according to
the federal Bureau of Land
Management.
To slow the frequency
and severity of such fi res,
scientists at Oregon State
University undertook a
10-year study of the long-
term eff ects of popular fi re
prevention and mitigation
methods to see which ones
were successful over many
years, and which only had
short-term impacts.
In a new report pub-
lished in the scientifi c
journal Ecosphere, those
scientists concluded that
thinning vegetation across
the sagebrush landscape
was the most eff ective,
long-term method for mit-
igating wildfi re spread and
severity. Other methods,
such as prescribed burns
and the use of herbicides to
kill non-native grasses and
invasive tree and shrub spe-
cies were only eff ective in
the short term.
The OSU scientists
teamed up with specialists
from Great Basin states,
including Eva Strand, a pro-
fessor of rangeland ecology
and management at the Uni-
versity of Idaho. She said
studying this over a decade
gave scientists a broader
perspective.
“A treatment might be
followed for a couple years,
but there’s no looking at the
long-term response,” she
said. “With this, we could
see for how long these
methods are eff ective in
mitigating wildfi re.”
The scientists didn’t
ignite fi res but used com-
puter models to study how
each treatment — thinning,
herbicides or prescribed
burns — could impact the
speed of a fi re’s spread and
the height of the fl ames.
In their study, the scien-
tists found that herbicides
left behind dead vegetation
that could create hotter fi res
with higher fl ames. They
found prescribed burns
were eff ective short term,
but long term, invasive
grasses quickly returned
and reestablished them-
selves, creating a greater
fi re risk.
Strand said their fi ndings
will also impact fi refi ghter
safety in a wildfi re.
“We were able to model
how they actually impact
fi re behavior,” she said.
“We can tell which methods
create shorter fl ame lengths,
East Oregonian, File
In a new report published in the scientifi c journal Ecosphere,
scientists concluded that thinning vegetation across the sagebrush
landscape was the most eff ective, long-term method for mitigating
wildfi re spread and severity.
so fi refi ghters can approach
it in a diff erent way.”
Oversight by Bureau of
Land Management
The bulk of sage-
brush ecosystems in the
Great Basin are overseen
by the federal Bureau of
Land Management, which
is currently involved in
a project to create fuel
breaks along 435 miles of
roads throughout sage-
brush habitat along the Ore-
gon-Idaho-Nevada border
in the Great Basin. These
are areas where BLM is
reducing vegetation like
grasses and trees in order to
reduce the probability of a
fi re spreading and growing
in height.
The scientists hope their
research can inform the
methods the agency adopts
to create those fuel breaks.
“We need to be imple-
menting strategies that pre-
serve our good condition
sagebrush steppe areas and
get ahead of this invasive
grass and fi re feedback cycle
that we’re in,” said Lisa Ells-
worth, lead author of the
study and a range ecologist
at OSU, in a statement.
Ellsworth said that
sagebrush ecosystems are
among the most fragile
ecosystems on the North
American continent.
“I feel the pressure of
time in these systems,” she
wrote.
C lassifieds
Published by The Observer & Baker City Herald - Serving Wallowa, Union and Baker Counties
PLACING YOUR AD IS EASY...Union, Wallowa, and Baker Counties
Phone La
Grande - 541-963-3161 • Baker City - 541-523-3673
On-Line:
www.lagrandeobserver.com
www.bakercityherald.com
Email:
Classifieds@lagrandeobserver.com
Classifieds@bakercityherald.com
DEADLINES:
LINE ADS:
Tuesday: 10:30am Monday
Thursday: 10:30 am Wednesday
Saturday: 10:30 am Friday
DISPLAY ADS:
2 Days Prior to
Publication Date
THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022
103 Announcements
PULL TABS
ACCEPTED
AT THE FOLLOWING
BAKER CITY LOCATIONS
∙
∙
∙
∙
∙
∙
∙
∙
∙
∙
∙
∙
CALL or visit
The Observer
541-963-3161
TheObserver.com
or
Baker City Herald
541-523-3673
BakerCityHerald.com
Baker City Herald
Dollar Tree
Black’s Distributing
Ryder Bros
VFW
Baker Elk’s Lodge
Main Event
Lefty’s Tap House
Baker City Fire Dept.
Haines Sell-Rite
Idle Hour
Salvation Army
Call
541-963-3161
or
541-523-3673
to place your ad.
GET QUICK CASH
WITH THE
CLASSIFIEDS!
Sell your unwanted car, prop-
erty and household items
more quickly and affordably
with the classifieds. Just call
us today to place your ad and
get ready to start counting
your cash. The Observer 541-
963-3161. The Baker City Herald
541-523-3673