Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bigger Fish To Fry In Bpa Mess

Think of the Pacific Northwest’s economy as a house, with smoke filling the rooms. Its outdated wiring is showering the kitchen with sparks. Down in the basement, politicians are poking pennies into the fuse box.

Okay, it’s a crude analogy. But it’s no joke.

The Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency that sells power from Columbia River dams, has begun to lose major customers. Aluminum companies are making deals to buy power elsewhere.

If the customer loss continues BPA couldn’t repay its federal loans, it couldn’t continue fish and wildlife restoration programs, and its remaining customers would face skyrocketing electrical rates.

Conservatives in Congress have tried to exploit BPA’s crisis. They would cap BPA’s salmon restoration outlays at or below current levels, and officially would declare these outlays sufficient to satisfy all federal conservation laws. In view of the fact salmon already are in decline, such a curtailment would assure the salmon’s swift and permanent disappearance from the region.

While a few powerful industries would like to get the salmon out their hair, the maneuvering on their behalf is an assault on other regional interests: Sport and commercial fishing. Tourism. Native Americans. And, not least, the duty to conserve the region’s heritage and environment.

In fact, BPA’s problem isn’t the salmon, nor is it the cost of hydropower. Together, salmon and hydro operations are a small fraction of BPA’s cost structure. BPA’s costs have been inflated by several complex subsidy programs, by inefficient and defunct nuclear plants and by its power-transmission duties, among other things. Plus, its earnings are hamstrung by outdated federal limits on the sale of its power.

A diverse chorus - environmentalists, utilities, industries and the region’s governors - is calling now for a structural overhaul. The goals: strip away outdated practices that make hydropower appear uncompetitive; commit to a region-wide, cost-effective salmon restoration plan; give BPA, or a regionally run successor, more leeway to compete in today’s energy market; and distribute public obligations, such as debt repayment, more fairly.

Until that can be done, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray has proposed a way to keep BPA competitive: Set the salmon restoration budget at $435 million, without absconding on conservation laws. Hold $500 million more in reserve, to cover BPA’s obligations if a drought or other emergency cuts its revenues. It’s a decent compromise.

Still, it’s only a penny in the fuse box. The region has to rip out BPA’s tangled circuits and replace them with a competitive power distribution system.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board