Cantwell: Bush Plan to Hike Northwest Power Rates is Illegal
Cantwell: Bush Plan to Hike Northwest Power Rates is Illegal
New OMB documents show plans to hike rates by $100 a year for Northwest consumers
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) today said the Bush Administration's proposal to develop legislation increasing the rates of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) "directly violates existing law." Cantwell, along with Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Patty Murray (D-WA) called on new Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman to affirm in writing that the Department of Energy will abandon the plan.
In a letter to Secretary Bodman, Cantwell and the other Northwest Senators cited a provision contained in the Fiscal Year 1993 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act (PL 102-377) that explicitly prohibits DOE and other federal agencies from "conducting any studies relating or leading to the possibility of changing from the currently required at cost' to a market rate'" for BPA power. The Fiscal Year 2006 budget released yesterday said the Administration is drafting legislation to do precisely that. As such, the Senators called on DOE to cease development of this legislation and any sort of analysis that would support it.
"The Bush plan to hike our energy prices is not only unfair, it's illegal," said Cantwell, a member of the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "Even the Administration's most conservative estimates suggest this would raise energy rates by $100 a year for Northwest consumers. The fact is, it's illegal for the Administration to spend Northwest taxpayers' money to develop this proposal, so it can turn around and raise their energy rates."
The Administration's Fiscal Year 2006 budget proposal itself is sparse on details, suggesting the Administration will " propose legislation to very gradually bring [power marketing administration] electricity rates closer to average market rates throughout the country." Meanwhile, internal talking points from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), designed to promote the plan, concede that wholesale electricity rates could double over the next four years. The documents also conservatively estimate that the average impact on Northwest consumers would reach almost $100 per year by 2011. That projection, however, appears to be based on a series of flawed assumptions.
About 70 percent of the electricity consumed in the state of Washington is BPA power, which today is sold at costrather than market-based--rates.
http://cantwell.senate.gov/news/releases/2005_02_09_bpa.html