Power Council Hearing Sparks Heated Debate On Proposal Officials Worry About Losing Control Of System, Salmon Recovery Costs

Old divisions over allocation of the Northwest’s cheap hydroelectric power, and how much should be spent by whom on fish and conservation, erupted Wednesday in Spokane before a committee searching for consensus on those issues.

In three hours of testimony before representatives of three regional governors, environmentalists criticized what they said were feeble commitments to restoration of Columbia River salmon runs.

Spokesmen for low-income groups said they fear weatherization and assistance with utility bills will suffer.

Rural utility executives responded with warnings of increased costs and weakened local control.

All were commenting on a draft proposal for overhauling the Northwest’s energy system.

The document is the work of a 20-person steering committee convened last January by the governors of Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana. Their concern, they said, was the potential for a power grab by interests outside the region intent on gaining access to low-cost resources controlled by the Bonneville Power Administration.

Among other things, the committee’s plan would substitute a system of “subscriptions” to federal power for preference granted to public power utilities.

The goal is to spread the benefits and risks of access to existing federal power across all customer groups, ensure the Bonneville’s debt repayment, and keep the region’s cheap power at home.

Minimum contributions for fish and conservation funding would be established. If fish restoration costs exceeded the existing ceiling, the region would split the overrun with the U.S. Treasury.

But Sierra Club spokesman Jim Baker called the proposals “non-starters.”

The region, he said, needs to step up to the higher costs of meeting its fish and other obligations, just as utilities in other regions have spent heavily to control air pollution.

One witness, Derrick Jensen, called the draft “genocidal” because it does not require the removal of dams built without fish bypass systems that would have preserved the livelihood of Native American tribes.

Pend Oreille Public Utility District representative Bob Geddes rebuffed claims utilities are not doing enough to encourage conservation.

A regionwide levy suggested in the draft report, he said, would triple the $200,000 Pend Oreille now spends, but send half the difference to other, wealthier areas.

Before the hearing, the representatives said they have been frustrated by the region’s inability to focus on the steering committee’s work.

“There’s some urgency involved here,” said Mike Kreidler, who represents Washington Gov. Mike Lowry on the panel.

Bills have already been introduced in Congress that will further deregulate the electric utility industry, he said. If the Northwest does not draft provisions protecting its interests, the dams and transmissions system could be sold off by a federal government eager for revenues, he said.

“That is a possibility we have to be prepared to meet,” agreed former Idaho Sen. James McClure.

He said his sources in Washington, D.C., have told him a deregulation bill will clear the House Commerce Committee next year.

“We don’t have the luxury of time,” McClure said. “A lot of people don’t understand the stakes.”

Bonneville sells about 40 percent of the power used in the region, and delivers about 80 percent over its far-flung transmission system.

, DataTimes