Bainbridge Power founders to lead Energy lunch talk

Posted

Jefferson County Energy Lunch hosts its monthly presentation, which for January focuses on “Assessing Local Energy Values: The Bainbridge Public Power Campaign” at 12:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 19 at the Port Townsend Yacht Club, 2503 Washington St.

Key speakers are Jane Lindley and Steve Johnson, cofounders of Island Power on Bainbridge Island. They are actively campaigning for a “yes vote on a November 2017 ballot measure to give the City of Bainbridge Island the authority to establish a nonprofit electric utility.”

Island Power organizers say they are facing vigorous opposition from Bainbridge Island’s current electric utility, Puget Sound Energy (PSE).

The presentation is to cover the 60 percent fossil-fuel component of electricity provided by PSE; the reliability and service advantages of local public power; expected rate advantages of public power; local economic and job benefits; the value of local vision in energy; and Island Power’s own efforts in local energy education and planning.