The Trump administration federal budget proposal includes a plan to sell off the assets of the Bonneville Power Administration.
BPA is operated by the US Department of Energy, and markets wholesale electricity from federal dams to many utilities in the northwest.
The Trump administration budget proposal calls for the transmission system to be sold off to private entities.
Sean O’Leary is with the Northwest Energy Coalition, a group made up of a number of organizations, including utilities, advocacy organizations, and businesses.
He says the concept was put forward originally by conservative think tanks like the heritage foundation as a way to pay down the federal debt, in part created by the various tax cuts being proposed in the budget.
But he claims if the transmission system is sold, the impact on ratepayers would be higher power bills. O’Leary said, “So what would be happening is this system for which northwest taxpayers have paid and continue to pay, proceeds from the sale would not come to us. They would go to the federal government in Washington DC. We on the other hand as customers of this system would have to pick up the pieces and pay whatever increase in rates would result from this sale.”
He says the issue has been proposed by some lawmakers before but never had much traction, especially from northwest legislators.
A spokeswoman for Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers yesterday told Spokane Public Radio that the eastern Washington Republican does not support the plan. She is working with Republican Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler on a letter to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney expressing their opposition to the proposed sale of BPA assets.
