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Bonneville Power Settles Suit by Offering a Price Cut by Staff Seattle Times - October 24, 2003

CHICAGO -- Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which sells electricity from federal dams in the Northwest, agreed to settle a lawsuit by reducing wholesale electricity prices an average of 10 percent.

The settlement would end a two-year dispute by the region's community-owned utilities over how much cheap electricity investor-owned power companies get from the federal power agency. The utilities sued in December 2001.

Avista and Puget Energy, both investor-owned power companies, signed the agreement. The two companies were two of more than 50 utilities in the region involved in the suit

The utilities have up to 120 days to ratify the agreement, said Mike Hansen, a BPA spokesman.

"I urge the utilities to sign the agreement," Kyle McSlarrow, U.S. deputy energy secretary, said in a statement. "The terms now on the table strike a balance of interests of all parties."

Investor-owned power companies were concerned that if the suit against BPA succeeded, they would lose their share of cheap federal power. BPA owes those utilities $200 million in federal power benefits, which they agreed to forgo if the suit was dropped.