The Hood River Hotel has a nice April special on river view rooms and so I stayed there Monday to attend a NW Seed conference on wind power held at The Columbia Gorge Discovery Center in The Dalles. As you can see from this window shot, not only is there a view of the river but the railroad tracks and terminal as well. Unlike Coos County, the trains run in Hood River County, rather a lot, so I was a little sleep deprived for the conference.
The conference was a lot about community wind, wherein local investors or the community own the project and partake in the ongoing revenue stream, something I am well in favor of as readers of this blog know. The focus, of course, was on centralized wind production and traditional turbines, but there was plenty of information on all the incentives supporting community wind in Oregon.
Probably the best moment of the conference occurred when another Coos County citizen attending mentioned during the presentation to the ODOE, Energy Trust, USDA NW Seed representatives that Coos Bay had recently placed a moratorium on wind. Jaws dropped and there was so much guffawing, snorting and laughing that a few city councilors must have felt their ears burning. If only I had video…
