Some might say they're running from the past, but "Whoops" officials say they've earned the right to put it behind them.

That's why the Washington Public Power Supply System's executive board voted unanimously Thursday in Portland to change the organization's name to Energy Northwest.

The state Department of Ecology must approve the name before it becomes official. But that approval is expected to be routine, and by Jan. 1 the organization's tongue-twister of a name and its notorious acronym will be history.

The new name and logo will be phased in slowly to hold costs under $140,000.

The name was changed largely to distance WPPSS from its troubled past. That past includes four never-completed nuclear power plants, and a massive default on $2.25 billion in municipal bonds that were sold to pay for two of them.

Only Plant 2 at Hanford was finished. The Bonneville Power Administration, which guaranteed bonds on plants 1, 2 and 3, still shoulders $7 billion in debt.

But things are different now, said Vic Parrish, WPPSS chief executive officer. Plant 2 is more efficient and reliable than ever.

"We think our performance over the past couple of years proves that this is a different organization," Parrish said in a phone interview from Portland. "We've earned the right to show we've learned from the past."

And Parrish said changing the name to get away from the negative image makes good business sense.

"It personally has impacted my ability in my business dealings," he said. "That literally comes up. It's a reality, not a perception."

John Britton, a supply system spokesman who braved the public relations disaster in the 1980s, said it probably will take awhile before people drop the old name in casual conversation. He also expects some criticism.

"We'll take some ribbing," he said. "There will be some accusations of running from our past."

There was so much bad press about WPPSS in the 1980s that the supply system subscribed to The Associated Press news service. Britton said he became frustrated every time he saw a story for broadcasters with the word "Whoops" inserted for WPPSS to help with pronunciation.

One of the factors WPPSS considered in choosing a new name was the number of words. The more letters in the acronym, the greater the chance it could be twisted into something else. A two-word name doesn't leave much to play with.

"A very innovative person can probably figure something out," Parrish said.