Statements of Steering Committee Members
Regarding the Final Report of the
Comprehensive Review of the Northwest Energy System
Al Alexanderson, Portland General Electric
Rick Applegate, Trout Unlimited
Ken Canon, Industrial Customers of Northwest
Utilities
Jim Curtis, Bonneville Power Administration
Jim Davis, Douglas County Public Utility District
William Drummond, Western Montana Generation and
Transmission
Jason Eisdorfer, Citizens Utility Board
Bob Gannon, Montana Power Company
K.C. Golden, Washington Department of Community
Trade and Economic Development
Charles Hedemark, Intermountain Gas Company
Sharon Nelson, Washington Utilities and
Transportation Commission
John Saven, Northwest Requirements Utilities
Rachel Shimshak, Renewable Northwest Project
Brett Wilcox, Northwest Aluminum Company
Gary Zarker, Seattle City Light
Al Alexanderson, Portland General Electric
The Comprehensive Review has provided an opportunity for the Northwest to
both meet its environmental obligations and continue to receive the
long-term benefits of a reliable power supply. The Review helped forge
important agreements about preserving and sharing these benefits in the
region.
The governors have helped the region develop a road map for restructuring
the Northwest Power industry. We are moving from a closed and largely
government-controlled electric industry to one based on competition and
driven by customer choice of what to buy and from whom. The road map will
help get us there in an equitable way.
Rick Applegate, Trout Unlimited
The Steering Committee's recommendations have now been submitted to the
governors. And, some important progress was made. Nonetheless, as my dissent
reflects, there is significantly more work to do before consensus on these
important power and fish-related issues can be achieved. Without that
consensus, it will be difficult if not impossible to implement the Steering
Committee's recommendations on utility restructuring.
The next critical step is to address fish and wildlife concerns --
including the issue whether this proposal improves the ability of the power
system to meet its unmet fish and wildlife obligations. That must be done in
expeditious deliberations with the tribal state and federal sovereigns and
fishery advocates -- not just an individual consultation or two. Ultimately,
our real legacy will be the effectiveness of our response to the plight of
the Columbia River salmon steelhead and trout.
Ken Canon, Industrial Customers of Northwest
Utilities
The governors? review addressed the competitive changes sweeping the
electricity industry in a comprehensive fashion. Industrial electricity
customers support this important effort to move the electric industry
towards competition at all levels and for all customers.
The review's recommendations are future oriented, comprehensive and
pragmatic. The review is an important step in the transition to a more
customer-focused, competitive electric future that will provide all electric
users with additional choices.
Jim Curtis, Bonneville Power Administration
BPA's structure may change as an ultimate result of the Regional Review,
but its purpose and role within the Columbia River System was reaffirmed.
Our mission continues to be to meet our public responsibilities to the
people of the Pacific Northwest and the nation's taxpayers through
commercially successful power and transmission enterprises. A common desire
to preserve the value of the federal hydropower system for the Northwest
united all of the participants in the review process.
Jim Davis, Douglas County Public Utility District
The Comprehensive Review's work respects local control of electricity
decision-making while taking important steps to prepare the Northwest for
increased competition in the electricity industry.
The recommendations balance the need to protect the environment and
public purposes with the interests of the US Treasury, the Washington Public
Power Supply System bondholders and utility customers, thereby, recognizing
that it is not in the best interests of the Northwest to force the utility
customers away from BPA by imposing too many onerous requirements.
William Drummond, Western Montana Generation and
Transmission
With all the radical changes going on in the electrical energy business,
the governors asked us to make recommendations for channeling these changes
in the direction that would best serve Northwest residents. While educating
people about these changes, our report provides a structure for preserving
the benefits of our power system for the region, allows people to make
choices and preserves public purpose values.
Our plan is only a beginning; lots of work remains especially at the
state level. Also, two of the most important elements are still unresolved.
While the future benefits of the Northwest's hydro system could be huge,
right not it would take very little effort to drive the system to
insolvency. Second, we have to do something about governance of the Columbia
River and the costs of fish and wildlife recovery. Until those issues are
resolved, there is little certainty about whether there will be any benefits
to share.
Jason Eisdorfer, Citizens Utility Board
The residential and small business customer may have more fears than
hopes concerning the outcome of electricity industry deregulation. The
Comprehensive Review is a rational step toward providing these customers
protections and benefits in the new deregulated environment. The report
links open access to electricity suppliers with protections for small
customers and firm funding for programs important to citizens of the
Northwest such as conservation, renewable resources and low-income energy
assistance.
The Comprehensive Review made movement toward assuring that the benefits
of the federal hydro system stay in the region and that the Bonneville Power
Administration meets is debt repayment to the Federal Treasury. The Steering
Committee accomplished its task as charged by the governor. The residents of
the Northwest hope that the governors use the momentum of this energy review
to move to address the salmon recovery issue, which is the other half of the
Northwest energy equation.
Bob Gannon, Montana Power Company
The recommendations represent a hard-won consensus of widely diverse
interests. They provide for a transition that enables the region to preserve
benefits of the regional energy system for Northwest consumers, enables
customers choice through an efficient competitive market, and preserves the
region's leadership position in acquisition of public purpose benefits.
The movement of various parties? positions, from self-interest to
regional best interests, demonstrated the significant strength of the
steering committee process. The recommendations provide a mechanism to
retain benefits for the region's ratepayers, provide them with choice, and
preserve acquisition of public purposes.
K.C. Golden, Washington Department of Community
Trade and Economic Development
These recommendations are a package that can unite the region around a
common strategy for managing the Columbia River System and for delivering a
brighter energy future. By working together as a region, we were able to
seize some of our most promising opportunities and meet some of our toughest
challenges.
The review recognized the value of vital investments in energy
efficiency, renewable resources, and affordable low-income services, and it
provided meaningful guidance on a practical, competitively neutral method
for securing them. Our recommendations set forth an appropriate minimum
standard for these investments. Now, working together in the four states,
we'll need to set up effective mechanisms that allow us to meet those
standards in all cases, and exceed them where possible.
As the report acknowledges, we will not have a truly comprehensive
package without a parallel set of initiatives on salmon recovery and river
governance. The imminence of important changes in the energy system creates
a uniquely promising moment to move forward simultaneously toward a
biologically sound and regionally supported recovery effort. Without such
movement, the consensus we need in order to sustain a solution that meet's
the region's long term interests will prove elusive.
Charles Hedemark, Intermountain Gas Company
The recommendations represent a responsible effort by the Northwest to
address essential questions about the future of our region's federal system
resources. The review opened energy decision making to a wide spectrum of
participants, while preserving the federal energy system's benefits for the
citizens of the region.
One of the most important outcomes of the review is the recommendation
that all distribution utilities accommodate open market access for all
consumers by mid-1999. The review's recommendations provide general guidance
to the legislative and regulatory authorities who must now pick up the work
the governor's committee has begun. Balancing the advantages of an open and
competitive market for electricity with the benefits of the past is what
Comprehensive Review was all about.
Sharon Nelson, Washington Utilities and
Transportation Commission
The review's recommendations on changes to the structure of the industry
encourage effective and beneficial competition and represent real progress.
While retail competition will be a matter of state and local policy-making,
the recommendations make a contribution by raising these issues for
consideration by local decision makers.
The transition from monopoly service to an electricity industry
controlled by the choices of consumers should lead to greater efficiency and
both short and long term benefits to all consumers. The steering committee's
recommendations concerning transmission, federal power marketing, public
purposes, and retail competition move the transition forward in a
responsible and constructive manner.
John Saven, Northwest Requirements Utilities
The review was an initial "test" of whether the region has the fortitude
to develop a cohesive plan for the future, or whether we would end up
responding to events in a fragmented manner. We clearly passed the test. The
review helped the Northwest stake out a future that meets the needs of
customers while fulfilling our responsibilities for environmental
stewardship.
Rachel Shimshak, Renewable Northwest Project
The review also made significant progress on the development of a secure,
competitively neutral funding mechanism to continue conservation, renewable
resources, and low income energy service programs, investment as the energy
system evolves toward competition. The recommendation represent a good
starting point for ensuring a clean and efficient electricity system.
Brett Wilcox, Northwest Aluminum Company
The report recognizes that the electric power industry is being
deregulated, that kilowatt hours are basically a commodity, and that a
competitive market for electric power as a commodity -- wholesale and retail
-- is not only inevitable but beneficial, because it will result in lower
prices.
The report is important because Congress will take up legislation to
restructure the electric power industry nationwide, just as Congress
restructured the telecommunications industry. The Northwest consensus
represented by the report is a workable new structure for the Northwest
power system, including BPA.
Gary Zarker, Seattle City Light
The report reflects a lot of hard work and tough compromises among the
many differing interests in the Pacific Northwest. The report will help
ensure the public benefits and the economic and environmental advantages of
the Columbia River system are maintained for the people of the Northwest.
The review will help protect our quality of life, the cost and reliability
of electricity and the influence we have as a region over these issues.
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