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 freas than
hopes concenrning 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 acces 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 Comittee 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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