02.10.06

Cantwell to Meet with Energy Secretary to Discuss Bush Plan to Raise Northwest Electricity Rates

Bush proposal would raise Northwest electricity rates by almost $1 billion, undo decades of local control

WASHINGTON, DC – Friday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) confirmed that she will meet with Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman late next week in response to a Bush Administration proposal to raise Northwest electricity rates by as much as 10 percent. Cantwell is leading a bipartisan coalition of Pacific Northwest senators in opposition to the plan.

“Last year, Secretary Bodman made a commitment not to raise our rates without a green-light from Congress,” said Cantwell. “Now the administration’s trying to do an end run on the legislative branch and push this ill-considered plan forward over the objections of the entire Northwest Senate delegation. When I meet with him next week, I’m going to continue to make clear that we simply won’t stand for this. This plan is nothing but bad news for the Northwest and I’m not going to sit around while our energy rates go through the roof.”

On Wednesday, in a letter to the president’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB)—the agency in charge of the president’s budget proposal—Cantwell led the seven other senators from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana in calling for an immediate halt to efforts to implement the plan without Congressional approval. On Thursday, under questioning from Cantwell and other Northwest members of the Energy Committee, Bodman confirmed the administration’s intention to implement the plan, but agreed to meet with senators before officially triggering the rate hike process.

Currently, BPA has the authority to sell surplus power and use the revenue to lower electricity rates throughout the Northwest. The proposal included in the administration’s Fiscal Year 2007 budget would restrict this practice and raise Northwest power rates by an estimated $924 million over the next 10 years.

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