Trump’s BPA Divestiture Proposal Harms Northwest Energy Customers
Posted on May 25, 2017 by Mike Goetz
Tags, Energy
According to several reports published today, including an article by Oregonian business investigative reporter Ted Sickinger, President Trump’s new budget proposal includes a plan to sell publicly owned transmission assets to create revenue for the U.S. Treasury. Chief among these plans from the standpoint of impacting Oregon and Northwest energy customers is the budget’s proposal to sell, or divest, the Bonneville Power Administration’s (“BPA”) transmission assets.
CUB strongly opposes the proposal to divest BPA of its transmission assets.
BPA is a federal power marketing administration based in the Pacific Northwest, and, although it is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, it is self-funding and covers its costs by selling its products and services. BPA operates three-quarters of the Northwest’s transmission system, which it uses to market power from 31 hydroelectric dams in the Columbia River Basin and wheel power around the Pacific Northwest and to California. BPA serves about 30% of Oregon’s energy customers. BPA’s hydroelectric and transmission systems provide much of the generation and infrastructure that help make the Northwest’s energy system one of the cleanest, most efficient, and most affordable in the nation.
While BPA financed the transmission assets in question with federal dollars, the continued expectation is that they are to be paid for by local ratepayers. Oregon and Pacific Northwest energy customers have been tasked with paying off both BPA’s capital investment and the cost of financing that investment. To date, Oregon and Pacific Northwest energy customers have made good on their end of the bargain. To divest BPA of the transmission assets that serve our region would be akin to buying a house on a 30-year mortgage, and then being informed after 25 years of mortgage payments that the bank is selling your house, and you must now rent from the new owner. This proposition is patently unfair and inequitable to Oregon customers.
Many of CUB’s allies, including the NW Energy Coalition have already expressed opposition to the new budget’s proposal. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has also publicly voiced his opposition, saying in a news release that “[p]ublic power customers in the Pacific Northwest have paid for the system and their investment should not be up for sale.”
We encourage you to contact your federal representatives to express your opposition. To find contact information for your Congressperson and Senator you can click HERE and go to either US Congress or US Senate. Type your zip code in the far right corner. Continue to watch our blog for updates on this important issue.
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05/23/17 | 0 Comments | Trump’s BPA Divestiture Proposal Harms Northwest Energy Customers