03.09.06

Northwest Senators Secure Provision to Help Stop Administration’s Energy Rate Hike Plans

Cantwell congratulates Budget Committee senators on important win for Washington’s ratepayers, vows to keep up fight

WASHINGON, DC – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) applauded her Pacific Northwest colleagues on the Senate Budget Committee for their work to include a provision in the Senate’s Fiscal Year 2007 budget resolution to block a Bush Administration plan that would force the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to raise rates. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Mike Crapo (R-ID) authored language adopted by the Senate Budget Committee Thursday that clears the way for the Energy Committee, of which Cantwell is a member, to approve legislation blocking the rate hike.

“The bipartisan Northwest delegation is strongly united to defeat the president’s proposed energy tax on our economy,” said Cantwell. “The BPA rate hike didn’t belong in the federal budget, and this amendment opens the door even wider for us to work together, particularly on the Energy Committee, and stop the plan once and for all. We’ve managed our own energy resources successfully for decades, and today’s victory is an important step toward ensuring fair treatment for Pacific Northwest ratepayers.”

Cantwell helped stop a similar BPA rate hike proposal last year. This year, the Bush Administration is trying to implement the rate hike without Congressional approval. The plan would reverse a decades-old BPA policy of using revenue from surplus power sales to lower electricity rates for consumers in the Pacific Northwest. In meetings with President Bush and Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, and in letters to Congressional and administration officials, Cantwell and other members of the Northwest Senate delegation have made it clear that they will fight the plan every step of the way.

Cantwell has also called on the citizens of Washington and the entire Northwest to join her in signing a petition to demand an end to the plan to unravel BPA’s cost-based rates. The petition, posted on Cantwell’s website, has already been signed by almost 8,500 citizens.

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