Hearing on electricity rates draws small Spokane audience

Few people testified on a snowy Thursday night at a hearing about proposed electricity rates in the Northwest.

About a dozen people attended the Bonneville Power Administration’s meeting in Spokane.

The BPA hopes to fluctuate power rates from 2007 to 2009 depending on its costs. Under current projections, rates in 2007 would be about $31 a megawatt hour and would fall in 2008 and 2009. Officials warn, however, that those figures are preliminary.

Also, under the proposal, the BPA would refund money if it collects more than $800 million in its reserve fund, which currently has about $300 million, said Elizabeth Evans, the BPA’s acting rates manager.

The BPA operates 31 dams in the Northwest and sells the electricity to public utilities and power companies, including Inland Power & Light, Vera Water & Power and Kootenai Electric Cooperative.Prices in the last five years have ranged from about $22 a megawatt hour to about $33, said Ed Mosey, BPA spokesman. They’re now about $29.Mosey, speaking from his office in Portland, said many of the BPA’s costs have increased.

Paul Machtolf, vice president of Ponderay Newsprint in Usk, Wash., testified that his company pays $400,000 a month more for electricity now than five years ago.

“It is time for the rates to come down,” Machtolf said. “This issue has serious implications on future economic growth, jobs and the competitiveness in our region.”