The Green Party of Washington endorses Green Party member Gordon Matthews for Clark County Public Utilities District Commissioner. The general election is on November 3, 2026.
“We face many serious challenges, but keeping electricity affordable and reliable is vital to everyone in Clark County and to the future of our State.”
Campaign themes:
We need to keep electricity and water affordable and reliable. We can no longer rely exclusively on the BPA for our electricity needs – that is a huge inflection point unprecedented in the 88 years there has been a Clark PUD. We need a future that wholeheartedly adheres to the goals of the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) and the Clean Energy Transition Act (CETA) without waffling or backpedaling. That means we need to wean ourselves from dependence on methane to power our community – and we can!
Campaign plans and goals:
We are at an inflection point where there is no longer enough renewable hydroelectric power to go around. As a career professional in the electric utility industry, I see advocates for methane-powered generation pouncing to build more. I see advocates for more nuclear power promoting their generation, but with no mention of how they will address (reprocess) the waste. I am disappointed in current Commissioners in how half-heartedly they offer opportunities for us to participate in Community Solar. I will drastically reinvent Community Solar to build our energy future and allow all of us, no matter how much money you have, to participate. I see with alarm how the Transmission system we bought and paid for can be turned over to commercial interests (with one ugly Sharpie scrawl). I have a plan to store surplus wind, solar, and hydro from the spring to use to power our community in the winter. I am a staunch advocate of pursuing technologies like geothermal instead of nuclear. I am a lifelong advocate for Public Power, where we are not customers but rather members coming together to ensure we all have the essentials we need to live.
The Clark PUD Commissioner is responsible to everyone in Clark County for what Clark PUD does. I am reaching out to everyone in our community, regardless of political affiliation. I am finding we all want affordable and reliable electricity and, in so doing, looking for common ground to talk constructively about our future and maybe even reverse the Balkanization that threatens to tear us apart.
The cold wave of January 2024 was a wake-up call: It was cold for a week, and Clark was forced into the market to buy power, where prices increased by a thousand times, and we burned through $21M in our reserves in 5 days. The next month, we all got a 14% rate increase. That’s the new normal. The market is not our friend. Our Commissioners have not heeded the call. We need to be actively partnering with the east-side Public utilities (Public Power is 75% of our state!) who want to develop renewable energy as a significant economic development opportunity. We need to work with them to develop these resources responsibly. As Public Utilities, their efforts are at cost as opposed to seeking commercial companies that don’t ascribe to our values and will cost at least 30% more (or they won’t be commercial for very long). We need to be very skeptical of advocates for more nuclear power unless they can guarantee – and pay for – the technologies to ensure we will not contribute to our already daunting challenges of nuclear clean-up.
Website: https://www.matthewsforclarkpud.org/
Instagram: @matthewsforclarkpud
Facebook: @matthewsforclarkpud