On April 22, Seattle City Council Member Heidi Wills flew to Washington, D.C., to accept a major EPA award on behalf of Seattle City Light for its conservation efforts. The timing, by Wills' own admission, was ironic: Just one week earlier, Mayor Greg Nickels had announced major cuts to the very programs Wills was sent to D.C. to hype. Looking to close a $32 million gap in City Light's finances, Nickels cut administrative, distribution, and generation costs. But of all the programs Nickels targeted, conservation was by far the hardest hit, losing 12 percent of its budget, or about $5 million. The cuts decreased the city's conservation commitment through 2004 by about 20 percent.
City Light's latest budget woes were brought on by a dry fall and the ongoing economic downturn. Raising rates or going further into debt were taken off the table-- leaving cuts as the only option.
A poor economy is double-edged: First, electricity usage is down, forcing City Light to sell its excess power at low rates on the open market. Second, City Light's Steve Lush argues, because commercial building (which accounts for three-quarters of the utility's conservation program) is stagnant, "it's harder to find opportunities" to install energy-efficient lighting, heating, and cooling systems.
It's ironic that conservation--a money-saving venture--only seems useful in fat times rather than in recessions, when frugality should be a mantra. Enviros (and Wills) point out that the program actually saves money in the long run--by 2018, some $12 million on the city's $5 million investment. "The investments we make now will keep paying us back for the next 15 years," Wills says.
Wills' rap sounds good, but as the council's enviro-friendly energy chair, couldn't she have done more to prevent the cuts in the first place? "We knew in the fall"--when the budget was being written--"that we were in a very serious water situation," Joan Walters, City Light deputy director, acknowledges. But Wills says the council could do little in advance to keep the cuts from happening. "We as a legislative body cannot compel the utility to spend money" on conservation, Wills explains. (Wills could have requested a budget proviso--in this case, a directive to fund the conservation programs--but stipulations on pet projects still have to be approved by the rest of the council.) Wills says she's asking City Light to take a look at alternative cuts and, potentially, restore the program.
