Group Seeks Cut In Northwest Subsidies Aluminum Smelters, Irrigators Targets Of Coalition’s ‘Green Scissors’ Report

An unusual coalition of tax watchdogs and Northwest environmentalists wants Congress to slash $2.3 billion in federal subsidies.

Among their targets are aluminum smelters and Columbia River irrigators who benefit from the federal system of cheap hydropower.

Their report, “Green Scissors,” was released at simultaneous press conferences Thursday in Spokane, Seattle, Portland and Boise.

The report praises the GOP-controlled Congress for focusing national attention on balancing the federal budget.

But there’s more to do to cut government pork, its authors say.

A companion study, “River of Red Ink,” says wiping out federal pork in nine regional subsidy projects could raise enough money to restore the Northwest’s dwindling wild salmon population.

Among its recommendations:

Restructuring Bonneville Power Administration electrical rates and eliminating cheap power for the region’s aluminum industry.

Ending BPA power purchases from the “uneconomical” Washington Public Power Supply System’s No. 2 reactor at Hanford - forcing it to close or compete on the free market.

Axing BPA’s special power rates for the Bureau of Reclamation and individual irrigators in the Columbia River basin.

Ending below-cost timber sales by the U.S. Forest Service, and making mining companies pay more for mineral rights.

Raising grazing fees on federal rangelands in the Northwest.

With the subsidies removed, “it’s actually cheaper to save salmon than to kill them,” said Jim Baker of the Sierra Club’s National Salmon Campaign.

The BPA started a review of its rates last month, said agency spokesman Perry Gruber.

Aluminum company rates have already been revised, he said.

“In the past, we charged them according to the price of aluminum on the world market. Our current rate is a little lower than what we charge everyone else, but it’s less expensive to serve them” than residential customers, Gruber said.

BPA also is reviewing the economics of the No. 2 reactor, Gruber said.

The savings BPA would get by closing the reactor “are offset by decommissioning costs,” he said. “In reality, there’s no economic benefit.”

The new report is being sent to the region’s congressional delegation, including Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Spokane, Baker said.

Participants in the “Green Scissors” project include two tax-reform groups, the Concord Coalition and Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Activist groups include the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Sierra Club and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

Project money came from several foundations, including the Rockefeller Family Fund, the W. Alton Jones Foundation and the Millstream Fund.

, DataTimes