Review Of Northwest Energy Plan Scheduled Wednesday’s Spokane Hearing Is The Last One Before Final Version Of Report Is Written

A review of the Northwest energy system, an upstream effort all the way, pushes into Spokane Wednesday for a last hearing before a final report is written.

Odds are the consensus hoped for when the study was launched will prove as elusive as the few salmon that still navigate the length of the Columbia-Snake river system.

Uncertainty created by utility deregulation is increasing tensions over issues from control of the region’s transmission system to support for fish restoration efforts.

Yet there is recognition that failure to resolve the issues within the Northwest could be risky.

The public hearing starts at 5 p.m. at the Red Lion City Center.

Charles Collins, chairman of the 20-person steering committee preparing the study, has warned that without a unified plan, the government might sell the Columbia River hydroelectric system. That could jeopardize the low-cost power the system produces for the Northwest.

Participants are well aware of the stakes.

“Is the region going to get ahead of this or not?” asked Bruce Lovelin, executive director of the Columbia River Alliance, which represents shippers, irrigators and other river users.

“We’re at a point where consensus is not apparent,” he added.

The steering committee was organized in January by the governors of Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana. The Bonneville Power Administration, burdened with high debt and fish costs, was struggling to hang onto customers who found cheaper power in the open market than the federal power-marketing agency could provide.

Also, federal regulators issued new rules requiring utilities to separate their transmission operations from the generation and sale of electricity.

Legislation will be necessary to split those functions within Bonneville, but doing so raises other questions about repayment of its Treasury debt, Washington Public Power Supply System bonds, and fish and conservation costs.

The committee’s draft report, issued in late September, outlines potential solutions in 37 pages of often technical detail, such as how power from federal dams would be allocated.

Members also recommend that levies be imposed on gross sales to cover conservation and energy assistance obligations, which otherwise face cutbacks as market forces squeeze utility leeway to pass those costs on.

But Inland Power & Light Co. General Manager Dick Heitman said levies based on gross revenues unfairly favor some utilities.

He also objected to a suggestion that public utilities like Inland be regulated like private utilities. Overall, Heitman said, the review’s recommendations contain more harm than good for utilities serving rural customers.

Lovelin said the urgency surrounding the review is misplaced. Bonneville’s fate will not be that high on the list of next year’s priorities in Washington, D.C., he said.

Sallie Schullinger, spokeswoman for the Northwest Conservation Act Coalition, said there is work to be done, but added that time is limited.

With deregulation bills already in Congress, she said, “We’re going to have to work really hard.”

The coalition has advocated more spending for conservation and renewable energy, and more assurances that small energy users get the same benefits from deregulation that industry will.

, DataTimes