The Trump administration has dropped its plans to privatize the Bonneville Power Administration, according to Washington’s Republican congressional delegation.
Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane, Dan Newhouse, R-Yakima, and Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, issued a joint statement praising the U.S. Department of Energy’s decision to not sell the BPA’s assets.
“On behalf of the 12 million residents and businesses in the Pacific Northwest who rely on the clean, affordable hydropower generated from BPA, we applaud the Administration for responding to our concerns over the potential sale of the BPA’s transmission assets and making the formal decision to abandon such plans. We have voiced our strong opposition to this proposal and are grateful to Secretary Perry for continuing to study the impact a sell-off would have on our region and recognizing BPA’s unique and vital role in maintaining economic vitality for our Northwest communities. It’s a big relief to know that this harmful proposal will not be pursued.”
The administration first raised the notion of selling the BPA last year while crafting the fiscal year 2018 budget. Budget writers calculated selling the BPA’s transmission system would save the government about $5 billion over a decade.
All 15 U.S. representatives from Washington and Oregon opposed the proposed sale in a letter sent in June 2017 to Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Mulvaney. They argued, “selling off BPA’s transmission assets is bad public policy that undermines the President’s economic objectives and betrays a lack of understanding of the Northwest.”
They claimed divesting the system would lead to rate increases and create systemic investment distortions that would favor highly populated areas and neglect rural communities. Furthermore, they believed selling assets would compromise the agency’s ability to cover the costs of the Federal Columbia River Power System.
The NW Energy Coalition — an alliance of 100 Northwest environmental, civic, human service organizations, utilities and businesses — praised the congressional unity on the topic and echoed their concerns.
“Because BPA is a self-financing enterprise that makes annual payments to the federal government to pay down its debt, any revenue resulting from a sale of transmission assets would amount to a relatively small one-time cash fix for the federal government,” spokesman Sean O’Leary said in an email. “Meanwhile, the new private-sector owners would seek to maximize profits at the expense of Northwest residents.”
The BPA owns three-quarters of the transmission lines in the Northwest which move power from 31 hydroelectric dams and one nuclear power plant. The maintenance and operation of those lines is paid for by more than 12 million regional customers.
The Trump administration’s threat to sell the BPA is only the latest overture in a long history of administrations flirting with selling the agency. The Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush administrations all made similar proposals, over the objections of previous Northwest congressional delegations.
