Each August I have the pleasure of hosting the Clean Energy Transition Institute (CETI) family members that are based in the Northwest, which includes all former and current team and Board members, plus their families. All told, 10 Board members, 15 staff, 20 consultants, and seven Research Fellows have worked with us over the past seven years. This August we had a strong turnout of 21 CETI family members.
CETI punches way above its weight class, and that is because of the people you see pictured here and the many others who could not make it this year. I am so very grateful to this exceptionally talented and dedicated team and the families that support their work on accelerating an equitable clean energy transition in the Northwest.
Speaking of our team, CETI is thrilled to welcome Sabine Blumenthal, who joined us as a Research Intern earlier this month. Sabine graduated from Colorado College in 2024 with a B.A. in Environmental Science and a minor in Anthropology and is eager to continue honing her data visualization skills with GIS, Tableau, and Python.
We are deeply appreciative of the Seattle Foundation, which made a grant of $50,000 to us in July for our equitable transition work. These are lean times for CETI, and this generous support, combined with that of the Stolte Family Foundation and The Russell Family Foundation earlier this summer, is critically important.
As the days shorten and the leaves begin to fall, CETI is working on our evolving theory of change and goals for the next year and beyond. We are talking to our donors and partners and planning a strategic retreat for October. I look forward to sharing with you where we land in the months ahead.
Eileen V. Quigley
Executive Director
The Washington Department of Commerce (Commerce) recently released an “Environmental Justice Toolkit for Hydrogen Project Developers” to help developers plan and execute projects that don’t harm impacted communities but instead provide tangible benefits.
The toolkit can be found by navigating to the 'Resources' section on Commerce’s Hydrogen and Renewable Fuels webpage. We have also included links below that will take you directly to the full toolkit, individual sections, and additional resources:
We are excited to see these resources made available as CETI recommended that Commerce create an environmental justice toolkit in Green Electrolytic Hydrogen and Renewable Fuels: Recommendations for Deployment in Washington, a report that we produced with Evolved Energy Research for Commerce released on January 5, 2024.
On August 14, the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) hosted a public webinar to share draft Oregon Energy Strategy (OES) recommendations for public comment. This was a huge milestone for a project that CETI has been working on for well over a year. ODOE’s Energy Systems Senior Policy Analyst Edith Bayer walked through the draft recommendations; Research Analyst Ruby Moore-Bloom described the energy modeling results we conducted with Evolved Energy Research; and Phil Jordan, one of our employment modeling partners from BW Research, presented jobs analysis findings. You can view the webinar recording and materials here. The draft OES will be open for public comment through September 22.
We look forward to sharing more insights from the OES in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we want to express our gratitude to the entire ODOE team for its leadership and dedication to understanding how Oregon might achieve its state energy policy objectives and reduce emissions equitably. We also want to acknowledge the top-notch work that the CETI-OES consulting team brought to this project over the past 18 months: Jeremy Hargreaves of Evolved Energy Research, Elaine Hart of Sylvan Energy Analytics, Angela Long of Rockcress Consulting, Mariah Caballero, and Phil Jordan, Mitch Schirch, and Sophia Chryssanthacopoulos of BW Research.
Research Analyst Jeanne Currie presented key insights from our SCALE 2030 papers to the Bellevue 2030 District on August 13. The presentation slide deck can be found here.
We are excited to continue to socialize these papers with building decarbonization partners across the state as we work on a Clean Buildings Transition Roadmap for Washington. If your organization is interested in a briefing on our building decarbonization work, please reach out.
The Western Transmission Expansion Coalition (WestTEC)’s 10-year study is currently on target for a mid-December release and is expected to show modest interregional transmission needs. CETI heard the latest updates on the 10-year and 20-year studies at the August 14 meeting of the Regional Engagement Committee, the slides for which can be found here. Mark your calendar for the next public webinar on October 10 for additional updates.
The Washington Pathways project hit a major milestone at the July 28, 2025 Quarterly Public meeting that kicked off the public comment period for the state’s Draft Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP), which ended on August 22. Commerce reported that 419 people registered for the webinar and 200 participants attended, the strongest attendance for the state’s meetings on this project to date.
This quarterly meeting featured the energy pathways modeling that Jeremy Hargreaves performed as part of the CCAP planning. A rich set of materials, including Jeremy’s presentation, can be found here. The final CCAP is due to the EPA in December 2025.
Resources used to generate electricity, often referred to as “fuel mix,” vary greatly among utilities, states, and regions. In an updated set of interactive visualizations on the Northwest Clean Energy Atlas, we show the fuel mix of utilities in Oregon and Washington and resulting emissions.
And for a closer look at the data, Jeanne broke down the fuel mixes and emissions from each state’s utilities in this month’s Demystifying Decarbonization blog.
In November 2024, the Washington State Green Bank (WAGB) was established with funds allocated through the state’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA). For this month’s Deep Dive, Ruby explained what green banks do, how they are structured and funded, and the particular role that the WAGB intends to play in Washington’s clean energy transition.
The CETI team will be out and about this fall. Below are some of the events we will be attending, and we hope to see you there!
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