Microsoft is leading the charge against the traditional utility model, which, like many large high-tech companies, has adopted a corporate sustainability policy that mandates aggressive reductions in the company’s greenhouse gas emissions and, ultimately, use of 100% renewable energy. Microsoft’s sustainability policy has run head-long into the heavy dependence of its major electricity supplier, Puget Sound Energy, and the collision has produced cracks in Washington’s utility regulatory model that may presage a fundamental rethinking of Washington’s utility business model.

On August 4, in response to a series of lawsuits brought by the environmental advocacy group Columbia Riverkeeper, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to regulatory measures aimed at preventing oil leaks from eight dams on the Columbia/Snake River system.