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Energy Secretary: We Stand by Our Plans on BPA by Associated Press KATU.com, March 3, 2005

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration isn't backing off a proposal to raise the cost of electricity for customers of the Bonneville Power Administration and other federal power suppliers.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told a Senate committee today the administration is going forward with its plan.

He says it would remove unfair government subsidies and allow power suppliers to operate in a more businesslike manner.

Northwest senators said yesterday they could prevent the market rate proposal from becoming part of the budget.

Ending the cost-based pricing would raise the cost of power by about 20 percent in the Northwest.

The increase would likely be passed along to consumers. It would also hurt industries such as aluminum smelting that depend on cheap power.

Bonneville, based in Portland, supplies nearly half the electricity in the Northwest, most of it from federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers.