the film forum library tutorial contact

Region Deserves Evenhandedness John Webster, For the editorial board The Spokesman Review - February 20, 2001

BPA's power strategies threaten the inland economy.

Spokane -- Bonneville Power Administration is working to keep lights on in the prosperous, populous I-5 corridor. But its blackout-prevention strategy threatens to unplug the economy in areas that are less populous and less prosperous -- such as Eastern Washington.

What would best serve the Inland Northwest? Conservation incentives would. So would the protection of existing power sources, such as hydroelectric dams, and the speedy construction of more power sources. Finally, our part of the Northwest needs BPA policy to ensure the continued viability of major employers such as Kaiser Aluminum -- a company threatened by the status quo.

Certainly, BPA is in a difficult position. During the past decade, the Northwest grew and so did its power appetite. Yet, the region failed to construct additional generating capacity. Indeed, the Trojan nuclear plant was shut down, and power production at the region's dams was cut back to help salmon runs. California likewise failed to construct generating plants to meet its growth and compounded its problems with an idiotic deregulation scheme that created an incentive for power producers not to produce and for power users not to conserve.

Now, with power costs in orbit and blackouts a concern, BPA's first duty is indeed to keep population centers lit. Thus, BPA's strategy includes the following:

• Leave power-hungry aluminum smelters, including Kaiser's Mead plant, closed for a few years until the crisis passes.

• Pay Columbia Basin farmers to let irrigated fields go brown. Reduce the amount of power used to pump water from wells or from the Columbia River.

• If a blackout looms, spin turbines at the dams, even if it means reservoirs plummet and water needed for salmon migration is lost.

These three tactics will hurt our inland region badly. Mead's jobs are crucial in Spokane and irrigated farming supports numerous small towns. If BPA places salmon in deeper jeopardy, that could, over the long term, boomerang in the lawsuits that aim to breach dams -- a move that would worsen the power shortage and beach the barges that carry inland wheat to Portland.

Given these threats to our region, BPA and the Northwest's utilities ought to create further incentives for conservation in the population centers, where most power is consumed. Yes, rising rates are one incentive. However, rates could offer extra rewards for conservation or extra penalties for increased consumption. In the short-term power market where marginal prices are so high, conservation saves utilities a bundle and increased consumption costs them a bundle. If rates were to reflect more of that reality, there'd be greater incentive to conserve.

And what of key employers like Kaiser? BPA has been haggling with Kaiser over uses for the $500 million Kaiser will receive from reselling power originally destined for its Mead smelter. If some of that money is used to reduce Kaiser's corporate debt, the company can reduce interest costs and move toward profitability and long-term survival. But if that is the only way the $500 million is used, it would be too easy for Kaiser to walk away, leaving plants closed.

Our region's best interests call for some of that money to go to long-term electrical cost reductions or alternative power sources for Kaiser's plants here. This would increase the incentive for Mead to reopen and Trentwood to stay open.

The energy crisis poses a grave threat to our part of the Northwest. BPA ought to try harder to protect this area's future.