Region faces power crisis demanding concerted actionOregon has joined Washington in pledging to put its electric utilities on a carbon-neutral footing by 2040. The principal bottleneck here is the federal Bonneville Power Administration, which owns and operates the Northwest power grid. There are hundreds of applications for major wind and solar projects languishing with Bonneville, dating back more than 15 years. Together, they would be capable, at least theoretically, of producing a staggering 200,000 megawatts of clean, renewable power. With hydro production slipping, gas-fired production static, renewable production stalled and data centers driving demand upward, the Northwest is having to import increasingly expensive power during winter cold spells.