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G-P Feeling Blue

Posted on: Friday, 17 February 2006, 18:00 CST

By ERIK ROBINSON Columbian staff writer

CAMAS -- Georgia-Pacific Corp.'s pulp and paper mill has long served as this Southwest Washington town's largest employer, physically distinguishing its territory by the smokestacks that tower over downtown Camas.

Now, the 123-year-old paper mill is distinguishing itself by its environmental stewardship.

On Wednesday, officials with Pacific Power recognized mill managers for making the biggest commitment to renewable energy among all the utility's customers in six states. G-P has agreed to pay a premium for 11,217 "blocks" of energy, an amount that equates to about 2.4 percent of the mill's total energy demand.

Of the 43,000 Pacific Power residential, business and industrial customers taking part in the Blue Sky program, G-P's commitment is the largest by threefold.

"This is really a new benchmark for our customers," said Matthew Wright, PacifiCorp's executive vice president of power delivery. "Hopefully, other industrial customers, or even residential customers, will see this and take their lead from Georgia-Pacific."

G-P's paper mill, with 950 employees, is Pacific Power's only customer in Clark County, connected since the 1940s by a transmission line running across the Columbia River from PacifiCorp's service territory in Oregon.

Pacific Power offers Blue Sky for customers willing to pay a $1.95 premium on 100 kilowatt-hour blocks of electricity to support the development of wind, geothermal and solar energy sources. In Clark County, the average household uses about 1,500 kilowatt- hours.

Georgia-Pacific's commitment will generate funds to support wind energy projects, which cost more to develop than traditional power plants powered on fossil fuels.

Proponents contend the costs of renewable forms of energy will fall as more resources are developed. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported about 6 percent of the nation's total energy consumption in 2004 came from renewable sources, with hydroelectricity accounting for nearly half of the total.

Increasingly competitive

Wright said wind power is becoming more competitive due to new efficiencies in the design of wind turbines, plus a federal tax credit for renewable energy.

"At some stage, in the not-too-distant future, wind projects will be competitive in their own right," Wright said.

Mike Tompkins, manager of the Camas mill, said the commitment to Blue Sky is the latest of several environmental initiatives undertaken by the pulp and paper mill.

The mill, then owned by Fort James Corp., installed $9.5 million in equipment in 1999 to reduce the mill's telltale odor. Three years before then, the mill began operating a 22-megawatt turbine connected to a steam boiler fueled by wood waste and black liquor used in the manufacturing process. Tompkins said the plant has also conserved enough energy to shut down an electric generator on site.

The Blue Sky program seemed like the next logical step in the mill's commitment to environmental stewardship, Tompkins said.

"It's just a good thing to do," he said.

While PacifiCorp offers Blue Sky to its customers, other homes and businesses in Clark County can avail themselves upon the Green Lights program provided by Clark Public Utilities. Customers can choose to pay a premium of $1.50 on 100 kilowatt-hour blocks of Green Lights electricity.

Pooling resources

The Portland-based Bonneville Environmental Foundation then pools the money with contributions from other customers throughout the Pacific Northwest to support the development of nonpolluting energy sources. Since the program began in 2002, about 490 customers of Clark Public Utilities have agreed to buy almost 10,000 blocks of green power.

Wilson Cady, who serves as the mill's union environmental representative, also happens to be active with Vancouver Audubon.

Although some older-generation wind farms have been notoriously hard on bird populations in some areas -- notably at Altamont Pass east of Oakland, Calif., where raptors perished in the spinning blades -- Cady noted that newer generations of turbines spin slower so that they are less damaging to wildlife.

Cady, who has worked at the paper mill for 40 years, said the mill is serious about environmental stewardship.

"Forty years ago, you wouldn't have seen this happen," he said.

Source: Columbian

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