Washington and Oregon members elected to lead Council in 2007

January 17, 2007

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council today re-elected Chair Tom Karier and Vice Chair Joan Dukes to lead the four-state energy and fish and wildlife planning agency in 2007. Karier, of Spokane, Washington, and Dukes, of Svensen, Oregon, held the same positions in 2006.

Karier is one of two Washington members of the Council. He was appointed in 1998. Prior to his appointment, Karier was an associate dean and a professor of economics at Eastern Washington University. During that time he also served as a Research Associate for the Jerome Levy Economics Institute in Annandale, New York.

Dukes was appointed to the Council in 2005 and is one of Oregon’s two members of the Council. To serve on the Council she resigned her seat in the Oregon Senate, where she had served since 1987. She has a broad base of experience in budget, education, transportation, forestry and fisheries issues at the local, county and state levels, including having served as chair of the Pacific Fisheries Legislative Task Force, an association of western legislators that works on regional fish issues.

The Council is an agency of the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington and is directed by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 to develop a plan to assure the Northwest an adequate, efficient, economical, and reliable power supply while protecting, mitigating, and enhancing fish and wildlife affected by hydropower dams of the Columbia River Basin.

Contacts:

• , Chair, 509-623-4386
• , Vice Chair, 503-229-5171
• , Information Officer, 503-222-5161