Letter to Editor | OPALCO the elephant in the room

||| FROM RIKKI SWAN |||

OPALCO (YOU) purchased 2 million dollars worth of solar panels for the Bailer Hill microgrid.

Those panels? Still sitting outside the Friday Harbor office under tarps, gathering moss and questions. Over 5,200–5,700 panels, depending on who’s counting.
OPALCO didn’t nail the due diligence on Bailer Hill. They assumed the county would just roll over. Instead, the county asked for more details, didn’t love what they saw, and the project is stopped cold—permitting on hold, grant money in limbo, panels collecting dust. Classic.
So now what? We’re all on the hook to pay for this shiny landfill. What a brilliant use of member money. (Don’t be fooled by the subscription thing – subscribers get their money back from the members- they get discounts on their bill which makes you pay them back- clever huh?)
So while sweating bullets they said ship the panels to Decatur—they fell for the microgrid pitch once before. Should be easy, right? Oops… Decatur woke up and started asking hard questions. Even Decatur “subscribers” are against it! Turns out they like their trees over there.
Credit where due: Decatur helped wake up a lot of us to the shifty goings-on at OPALCO. For more details, check www.OurOpalco.com.
The GM pulls down two full-time salaries for what amounts to two part-time gigs (one at OPALCO, one at the subsidiary Rock Island Communications). Each of the full time salaries tops what surrounding co-op GMs make—even those serving 30,000+ customers. Nice work if you can get it. ($800,000 anyone?)
OPALCO’s long-term debt is pushing $90+ million (and climbing fast—see their latest financials). If you live here, congratulations: you owe that.
Oh, and they guarantee another chunk of debt for Rock Island Communications (tens of millions, with OPALCO as the backstop). You owe that too. Sleep tight.
Now they’re pipe-dreaming microgrids on all the major islands—another $100+ million easy, complete with tree-clearing and pastoral land destruction. For what, exactly?
Most members assume we “need” solar because it’s carbon-free and renewable. Newsflash: BPA’s power (our main supplier) is already carbon-free and renewable. It’s mostly hydro, serving millions across WA, OR, ID, and MT. Did you know that? Yeah, they didn’t exactly lead with it.
BPA isn’t panicking about running out of juice. They’re watching growth and climate impacts but expanding nuclear/SMR options for the long haul. They didn’t beg OPALCO to slap up solar farms. That’s on the co-op.
OPALCO talks up “backup power” for the fire station, hospital, water treatment, etc. during short outages. Funny—they forget to mention those facilities already have required backup generators by law. Details, details.
Do you know we haven’t had a cable failure since 1955? (some say there was another one in 1991- so 2 in all those years.
And then there’s the tidal power project they’re smoking. Another hair-brained scheme in the Salish Sea. Because nothing says “reliable and affordable” like experimental underwater turbines that might play havoc with orcas and salmon. Why stop at solar when you can play R&D lab with other people’s money?
Speaking of scare tactics: the submarine cables. The main ones from BPA are owned and maintained by BPA, and they (BPA) is planning to add/replace capacity. So why the constant black-cloud warnings from OPALCO? Fear sells projects, I guess.
OPALCO is responsible for the island-to-island interconnect cables. That’s the unglamorous, no-R&D, no-grand-vision work they should be laser-focused on. Fix the basics. Cut the crap.
And yes, we pay some of the highest energy rates around. It’s not “just the cables,” folks. The real elephant in the room is the big-shot ideas, spendthrift ways, double-dipping salaries, mounting debt, and mismanagement galore. That’s what you’re paying for—while panels rot under tarps and scenic views get lined up for the chopping block. I wonder if the board can spell “malfeasance” or “misfeasance”? – maybe let’s just start with “mismanagement”
And they don’t report their legal fees separately, I’ve heard $600,000. Krista, am I close? (We all pay that too)
I can do part 2 if you like. (spoiler alert: It doesn’t get any better)
Or just check the website www.OurOpalco.com (It’s a very big room – lots of elephants!)

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