By Bill Lucia | Editor
TransAlta’s power plant in Centralia appears to have last burned coal in December. It was set to retire at that time, with plans for conversion to natural gas. But that same month, the Trump administration ordered the coal plant to remain on standby. The directive has been extended and remains in place. Now, TransAlta is seeking to spread tens of millions of dollars of expenses for keeping the plant available to the Bonneville Power Administration and others, a move that could put utility ratepayers on the hook.
Also in today’s edition…
New statistics show declines in deaths and severe injuries in the state’s child welfare system.
A warning from the U.S. Postal Service that mail ballots could go undelivered in states that don’t hand over lists of voter information.
And, Washington state legislators contemplate how to clamp down on the “corporate practice of medicine.”
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The Centralia coal plant hasn’t operated since December, but is required to remain on standby by order of the Trump Administration. (Photo by Tom Banse)
By Tom Banse
The dispute over who should pay to keep the Centralia coal power plant open is playing out before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. TransAlta is an independent power producer that no longer has any customers in the Northwest, and the plant is not producing any electricity.
Still, the company says it is incurring costs to keep it on standby. TransAlta has sought to pass expenses to the BPA, CAISO, which is the manager of California’s wholesale electric grid, the Southwest Power Pool, headquartered in Arkansas, and GridForce, which runs a data platform balancing supply and demand on the Northwest power grid.
Those entities are balking at the move. “Nothing under the facts or plain meaning of the (Department of Energy) orders would make Bonneville a customer of TransAlta, or otherwise make Bonneville responsible for costs associated with the availability or dispatch of (the Centralia power plant),” wrote BPA attorney Matthew Perkins in a recent filing with FERC.
TransAlta’s CEO, Joel Hunter, has stressed the company is complying with the federal order. But he has also indicated the plant is unlikely to restart burning coal because of the high cost to do so in Washington, and says the company remains committed to converting the plant to run on natural gas.
By Jake Goldstein-Street
Four children died in Washington’s child welfare system during the first three months of the year, and three more nearly died from critical injuries during that time. While the incidents are deeply troubling, they are trending down after a spike in 2025. Last year saw a record 23 deaths and 35 near-deaths. Many of the child fatalities have been tied to drug exposure. And the drop in incidents has coincided with a decline overall in opioid overdoses and wider availability of treatment options.
There’s an ongoing debate about whether changes in state law that raised the standard for separating kids from their parents and keeping them out of foster care have left children at greater risk. Several bills to address concerns about the incidents failed during last year’s session. But lawmakers did put more money in the budget to hire caseworkers and take other steps to address the issue. The statistics only cover children involved in the state child welfare system in the year before the incident.
By Jonathan Shorman
The U.S. Postal Service won’t deliver mail ballots in states that refuse to turn over lists of voters under a proposed rule, the agency’s chief executive told congressional lawmakers yesterday. Postmaster General David Steiner defended the rule at a Senate hearing and dismissed accusations that the Postal Service was acting politically after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March restricting voting by mail.
“If a state refuses to turn their absentee voter list over to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail their ballots under this proposed rule?” Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, asked Steiner.
“Under our proposed regulation, no,” Steiner replied.
If the rule takes effect and Democratic-led states refuse to comply, the requirements would effectively limit mail voting to Republican-led states during the November midterm elections. The Postal Service put forward the rule after Trump ordered Steiner to require states to submit lists of anticipated mail voters to the agency as a condition of having ballots delivered.
By Owen Racer, Cascadia Daily News
During the past two legislative sessions, Washington lawmakers have unsuccessfully tried to pass bills aimed at preventing the “corporate practice of medicine,” a term that describes corporations or shareholders — and not licensed clinicians — owning medical practices. This happens when a local or regional clinician-owned practice is acquired by a larger corporation that installs a provider as the owner — so that the practice is still “physician-owned” — but in reality, is controlled by the corporation, which can be owned by shareholders, private equity, or sometimes both. A law in Oregon that mirrors the Washington proposals was tested for the first time this year.
ICYMI
Washington’s gas tax is going up, but state transportation revenue is falling short | by Jerry Cornfield
WA transgender prisoner policy lands before state Supreme Court | by Jake Goldstein-Street
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