Seventy five years ago this month, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Bonneville Power Act creating the Bonneville Power Administration—one of four federal power marketing agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Energy. Roosevelt’s charge to BPA was to market at cost the power generated by Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams, major public works projects to inexpensively expand access to electricity in the Pacific Northwest.

From those ambitious and at times scrutinized beginnings, those two dams and the associated high-voltage transmission lines have grown into the Federal Columbia River Power System, a system of 31 dams, one nuclear plant and more than 15,000 miles of transmission lines that continue to deliver low-cost electricity to the Northwest.

To commemorate what BPA considers a 75-year partnership with the Columbia River, which is the lifeblood of the FCRPS and the cornerstone of BPA’s relationship with the people and utilities of the Northwest, BPA is developing a video series detailing its history.

The Columbia River and the inexpensive hydropower it produces helped America win World War II.  For decades after the war, the river and dams were a vital part of the Northwest’s economic engine. This century, the duo have been a driving force in helping BPA connect more than 4,400 megawatts of clean, carbon-free wind energy to its transmission system. Wind is a great complement to hydropower—the original renewable energy source.  The Columbia also waters the region’s crops, opens its shipping channels to feed the region’s robust economy, supports vibrant fisheries and provides world-class recreation.

However, power at cost and other benefits of this partnership have not come without consequences for people and the environment.  Elements of the economic, spiritual and cultural lives of many Native American people were decimated by dam construction.  To heal the damage, we have worked with our tribal partners to build one of the largest ecosystem protection and restoration programs in the world. 

For a quick 4 minute and 43 second walk through BPA’s first 75 years, you can watch its “Ode to the Columbia.”