Avista built by its customers

The failure of the recent sale of Avista to HydroOne of Ontario is a blessing for all but Scott Morris and his fellow executives and the stockholders of Avista Corp. These folks all wish to convert the equity value of the company into cash for their personal coffers.

The HydroOne offer was for $5.5 billion. Now one would wonder … where would all of that money have come from? Not from Canada I can assure you, but from the ratepayers of Avista.

Shawn Vestal seems to think that we have dodged a bullet fired by the “white knight” purchasers from Ontario. The regulators only turned down the proposal because of mismanagement of the Ontario government, but it appears to me that the next “white knight” sale will be acceptable to them as long it is offered by home-grown opportunists. But I am afraid that the result will be the same … a small group of investors bleeding off the value of the company to enrich themselves.

The inherent value of Avista Corp. was created by the rates paid by its customers over the last 100 plus years. Avista is guaranteed a profit of 10.5 percent by the utilities commission – not by the executive prowess of Scott Morris, et al. In my opinion the breaking up of Avista is long overdue. A PUD for the utilities side of the company, and Morris and other executives, are welcome to invest their own money … not the ratepayers’ money, in enterprises of their own without the guarantees of the utilities commission. We will then see whether Morris and his fellow travelers are worth the money that they bleed from Avista every year. I have serious doubts about that.

This entire issue has been fraught with greed and self interest from the beginning until its recent demise. There is an old saying: “Grow where you were planted” – and Washington Water Power and Avista have done quite well where they were planted, and need no outside investment that I can see.

Pat O’Leary

Spokane