Western State Pathways To Clean Energy Prosperity

Western Clean Energy Advocates is a diverse and growing coalition working to transform the way we produce, use and distribute energy across the West.  WCEA engages consumers, community leaders, conservation groups, clean-energy companies, utilities, regulators and other decision-makers to move the West to a more secure and sustainable energy future.

WCEA’s Clean Energy Vision Project charts a sustained, orderly transition from coal and gas to more jobs, better health and true energy security. Investing in diverse, indigenous and inexhaustible resources and modernizing our grid is the best way to revitalize the economies of every western state. Moving to clean energy reduces emissions and protects the West’s wildlife, water and ecosystems. Two documents anchor WCEA’s Clean Energy Vision Project:

Western Grid 2050: Contrasting Futures, Contrasting Fortunes
Western states will invest $200 billion in electric infrastructure over the next 20 years, to replace aging facilities and provide for growing needs. This new study examines two very different energy futures states can choose to build with this investment. It compares Business As Usual and Clean Energy development trajectories and the economic, environmental, reliability and public health implications of each. It is intended to begin public discussion of the energy choices we face.

Transition to Clean Energy: Policy and Investment Decisions for Western States
presents key elements of a plan for sustained, orderly transition away from coal and gas to cleaner and more secure resources. It outlines how a system based around low-carbon resources can be designed and operated to provide more reliable, lower cost electric service than we have today. It suggests what our reasonable expectations—shared goals—for the technical, economic and environmental performance of a clean electric system might be. It identifies policies now in place that western states can build as they move to clean energy, and the investments necessary to support the transition. Like Western Grid 2050, this document is intended to inform public discussion of transition to a clean energy economy in the west.