Speakers on Monday urged members of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council to protect them from data centers, to do more to safeguard salmon and to find more ways to use renewable energy to meet the electricity needs of a four-state region.

The council was created as part of the Northwest Power Act of 1980. It’s mandated with coming up with a power generation plan every five years and the Bonneville Power Administration is bound by that same law to follow its recommendations.

It hosted a public hearing Monday at Spokane’s City Council Chambers as it works to gather voices, concerns and recommendations that will all be discussed as the council, which represents Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Montana, formulates its power plan that will be completed either later this year or early in 2027.

Jen Light, the council’s director of power planning, said the body must weigh several factors as it studies how much electricity the region will need for the next 20 years “to ensure an adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply … and what’s the least cost, least risk way to meet that.”

She noted that the forecast for power needs is “driven by data centers, electrification, people just moving around the region” which will create a need that could double the current system’s ability to generate power over the next two decades.

“Uncertainty is something else you’ll see throughout the power plan … not just on how we will deal with the uncertainty of future loads, but the uncertainty of future weather and how that impacts the hydro system and how that impacts other resources like wind and solar,” Light said. There is “also uncertainty around future gas price volatility, resource availability and all sorts of things we’re kind of grappling with.”

Jeff Mergler, a retiree who lives in Spokane, urged the council to work on building guardrails around data center development in Spokane County. He noted that many residents are struggling to keep up with paying their bills to Avista Utilities.

“The explosive growth of data centers will directly impact our energy landscape,” Mergler said. “These facilities require massive continuous amounts of power. But a critical question is who’s going to pay for this? Everyday citizens are facing a severe affordability crisis.”

Mergler said he’s heard “story after heart-wrenching story how seniors and working families are making impossible choices between heating their homes, buying groceries or buying other necessities.”

Mergler said it’s unjust to force ratepayers to subsidize the infrastructure upgrades needed to power data centers.

“If data centers want to utilize our region’s energy grid, they must pay the true cost of their massive footprint,” he said.

Craig Hill, a member of the Spokane Tribe of Indians, suggested the council push for more forms of renewable energy.

“I would like to see that we start replacing the energy used by the Snake River dams in order to free up the river for our salmon,” he said.

Liz Melville told the council that she is no expert on energy, but she knows what she wants the region to look like for her children.

“I am a concerned citizen that really just loves the woods and the birds and wild spaces and I love my children and I really want them to have a place that … they still can enjoy walking in a forest and hearing the birds and fishing for salmon,” Melville said.

She noted that the council’s decisions are interconnected with the fears and wants of those who live in four states where they seek to manage power resources.

“Using gas and oil, and just having free reign on using as much power as possible with the data centers … has such a long-term cost for the whole world,” Melville said. “So, please, please be visionaries and think and protect what you can for our future.”

Tom Clouse can be reached at 509-459-5495 or at tomc@spokesman.com.