This month Energy Northwest, Grant County Public Utility District and X-energy, LLC signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a mutual partnership to support the development and commercial demonstration of the country's first advanced nuclear reactor.

A strategy for boosting salmon and steelhead numbers in the Columbia/Snake river basins supported by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council in its Fish and Wildlife Program, as well as by Northwest Tribes, is to reintroduce the fish into habitats where salmonids once existed historically but are now blocked by high head dams. Known as trap and haul, capturing fish below a dam and transporting them into, hopefully pristine habitat upstream, is one mechanism for expanding salmonids’ ranges.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued Oregon State University a license to build and operate the nation’s first pre-permitted wave energy testing facility, culminating an unprecedented regulatory process that spanned nearly 10 years.

An Oregon State University-led project to build the nation’s first pre-permitted wave energy testing facility cleared a critical hurdle this week as the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management awarded the university a lease to operate in federal waters about seven miles off the Oregon Coast.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte appointed Doug Grob to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, while changes are also coming to Oregon representation.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced this week it has selected John Hairston as administrator and CEO of the Bonneville Power Administration. The appointment was effective Jan. 7.