| BPA Benefit Update |
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BPA UPDATE Feb. 29, 2008
The Bonneville Power Administration is offering interim benefit payments to investor-owned utilities in the Northwest while it continues to work to establish a long-term Residential Exchange Program.
Utilities have until March 24th to decide if they want to sign the contracts. If they do, interim benefits would flow to customers sometime this spring.
The Commission submitted comments to the federal agency on how to modify the benefits so all utility customers are treated fairly, regardless which utility they get their energy from.
“We appreciate the steps the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is taking to get rate relief flowing to the customers of private utilities”, Oregon Public Utility Commission Chairman Lee Beyer said. “While we continue to have concerns about the way BPA views the Power Act, we do acknowledge that they have addressed some of the technical issues the Commission has raised in order to lawfully carry out the Regional Power Act.”
In general, we continue to believe that the 75% of Oregon families who buy their power from private utilities are not getting their fair share of these valuable public resources. To a large extent, we believe the Power Act is broken and Congress should address the unfairness of the current rules.
Recognizing that BPA will move forward as required by the Federal courts, the Commission will participate in the BPA formal rate case on behalf of the utility customers we represent. “We will continue to fight hard for Oregon families so all Oregonians have access to the benefits of the low-cost federal hydroelectric system”, said Beyer.
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