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WYDEN, NW SENATORS WIN BUDGET PROVISION
TO PROTECT BPA CUSTOMERS FROM RATE HIKE
Budget resolution now removes major hurdle
for Northwest Delegation
to pass legislation blocking harmful Administration proposal
March 09, 2006
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) today won approval of language in the Senate’s
FY2007 budget resolution that is a critical step towards blocking
an effort by the Bush Administration to force the Bonneville Power
Administration (BPA) to increase rates to consumers.
The budget language, authored by
Wyden along with U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Patty
Murray (D-Wash.), and adopted by the Senate Budget Committee today,
clears the way for the Energy Committee to pass legislation blocking
the Administration from forcing Northwest ratepayers to pay more.
Under the Senate Budget rules, the Northwest delegation would
have to get a super-majority vote in order to block the Administration’s
proposal without this provision. With the adoption of the Wyden-Crapo-Murray
amendment, a simple majority vote will now be enough to block
the proposal.
“Oregon power consumers have
won a victory today against unnecessarily high energy rates,”
said Wyden. “The Administration’s proposal to require
BPA to make additional Treasury payments would be like requiring
someone to pay more in loan fees just because they make more money.
So, I am pleased that the Senate Budget Committee has acted to
help save Oregonians hundreds of millions of dollars and opposed
what amounts to government loan sharking by the Administration.”
BPA is the largest power wholesaler
in the Pacific Northwest, supplying an estimated 45 percent of
the region’s power. The Administration proposal that was
set back by Wyden’s provision today would have forced Bonneville
to pre-pay its debt ahead of the repayment schedule that both
BPA and the Treasury Department had already agreed to, resulting
in potential rate hikes of as much as one billion dollars for
Northwest consumers over the next ten years. The proposal would
also have robbed the Northwest of the lower-cost power that is
a major economic driver for the region.
The resolution approved by the Budget
Committee today, which sets up the framework for annual Federal
spending, now will be sent to the full Senate for its consideration.
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