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Utility Slice Plan Far From Perfect Say Salmon, Conservation Advocates
With internal negotiations complete, Northwest utilities in May began talks with key stakeholders in search of support for their bid to allocate BPA power for 20 years beginning in 2006. For the "PermaSlice " plan to succeed, utilities will need support from consumer, conservation and salmon restoration groups and Tribes, and they must appease or neutralize the region's powerful aluminum lobby. Utilities just completed a visit to Washington D.C. this month to brief members of the Northwest Congressional Delegation .
Utilities hope to obtain support and agreement from other stakeholders relatively quickly—in time to finalize PermaSlice contracts next year. In opening discussions they stressed how eager they are to gain the support of public interest groups whose initial position is that the plan must be a major improvement on the status quo for Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) investments in energy conservation, consumer protection, new renewable resources and salmon restoration.
So far, clean and affordable energy advocates are under-whelmed with the plan, which they say is far too vague, lacking a commitment even to fund BPA's existing investments. Salmon restoration groups and Tribes are concerned about the implications of turning over to utilities certain hydro-operation decisions that could impact annual salmon migrations.
They point to existing slice arrangements, which have been interpreted to give BPA's utility customers storage rights that allow them to make critical changes to flow levels. According to the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission those changes this year harmed spawning salmon at the Hanford Reach , one of the few places in the Columbia Basin where wild salmon can sustain a harvest. Current slice contracts, signed last year, are shorter in length and apply to only a fraction of BPA's power resources compared to the PermaSlice proposal.
BPA has not yet declared a position on the proposal. Agency officials say they will first seek clarification of some key issues, including whether the allocation plan can legally be implemented without Congressional approval. Progress on PermaSlice essentially hinges on that clarification. One of the primary motivations for the plan's utility backers is to secure their access to BPA power for the long-term and to deny factions of Congress an opportunity to force them to pay market prices for federal power.
The plan faces other hurdles. BPA must assess the potential environmental impact of the plan through a National Environmental Policy Act review. And even if a general framework and principles are agreed on, stakeholders must get through contract negotiations to codify the details of the plan. If BPA's recent rate case is any example, finalizing PermaSlice contracts could be a long and arduous process.
In responding to one utility representative's eagerness to put PermaSlice into place quickly, Fred Huette , of the Sierra Club , recalled negotiations over the 1980 Pacific Northwest Power Planning and Conservation Act , the last major revamp of how federal power is allocated in the region. "They thought it would take three or four months, but once everyone got engaged inside and outside the region, it took over four years to finish—and it looked a lot different" than the original draft of the Act.
If the proposal makes it that far, public hearings on PermaSlice planned by BPA and the Northwest Power Planning Council promise to be lively.
— Mark Glyde & Steven Weiss