Pacific Northwest members of Congress have voiced their opposition to a proposal in the President’s budget to sell off the Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) assets.
In their letter to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, 15 members of Congress expressed their concern over the proposal to privatize BPA and highlight BPA’s unique role in providing affordable, clean energy to the Pacific Northwest communities.
Those signing the letter include U.S. Reps. Greg Walden (R-OR), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Denny Heck (D-WA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Derek Kilmer (D-WA), Rick Larsen (D-WA), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Kurt Schrader (D-OR), and Adam Smith (D-WA).
Here’s an excerpt from the letter:
We are also concerned that the divestiture would put rural communities in the Pacific Northwest at increased risk. Currently, BPA coordinates in transmission and power marketing functions to maximize efficiency. Severing that relationship will undermine this goal. Moreover, privatization could lead to the division of the regional grid, with high-value assets sold off for a premium and lines that serve rural areas and grid reliability abandoned. Private companies are unlikely to give these communities the proper maintenance and attention they need to maintain complex transmission assets.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., voted against four Trump administration nominees that would have sweeping control over energy costs, future energy infrastructure projects and public lands, in a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee business meeting.
Wyden said he voted against the nominee to be the deputy secretary of Energy, Dan Brouillete, because Brouillete did not commit to working to keep Bonneville Power Administration in public ownership, in a written answer to a question from Wyden.
In May, Wyden blasted the Trump administration’s recent proposal to privatize Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) transmission assets.
“Pacific Northwesterners have fought this battle before and we’re going to fight these malicious efforts again. BPA is a key part of Oregon’s economic future, and selling most of it off to the highest bidder would strangle the power supply for businesses and stretch the wages of working families in the Northwest,” Wyden said. “I cannot support a nominee who won’t even say whether he opposes a proposal that would hike energy prices for Northwest customers who have invested in a system that runs successfully on its own.”
