With that, I am going to move to the witness list. I would just 

 like to give a brief introduction. I do not usually do introductions 

 of witnesses, and this is one that really does not require one, but 

 I just feel that it would be appropriate. 



Jim Weaver is familiar to most of you. He is my former boss. In 

 part, my early interest in and knowledge of power issues came 

 from working with Jim, particularly during the struggle over the 

 Northwest Power Act. And I would say that if acts have fathers — 

 and I do not know whether we really can say that — Jim would be 

 the father of the Act and the principal architect in the House of 

 Representatives. I am really pleased to have him here today to lead 

 off the witnesses in what will perhaps be the next round of historic 

 changes in the way we look at our power system in the Northwest. 



With that, the Honorable Jim Weaver. 



STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES WEAVER, FORMER REPRESENTA- 

 TIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OREGON 



Mr. Weaver. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to compliment 

 Chairman DeFazio and his distinguished colleague. Congressman 

 LaRocco, for setting up and establishing this watchdog committee. 

 I think that is a marvelous thing that you have done, Mr. Chair- 

 man. 



The BPA needs watching. It acts like a private utility, not a pub- 

 lic agency. Indeed, it is closer to the utilities than the public it sup- 

 posedly represents. You know, Chairman DeFazio has a long his- 

 tory of keeping the BPA in line, all the way back to his suit on net 

 billing, which is long forgotten now, but was an accounting ruse he 

 saw rightly as an underhanded way to finance the WPP nuclear 

 plants with tax dollars and electric bill dollars without voter ap- 

 proval. That is why the BPA needs watching, because they can do 

 so many things without the public being represented. 



Indeed, when I filibustered the Northwest Power Bill in the 

 House in 1980, one of my key amendments — that is how you fili- 

 buster in the House, as you know. I had 115 amendments, each al- 

 lowing me five minutes. One of my key amendments was to require 

 voter approval of any BPA-backed bond issues. Oh, did they fight 

 back. This public agency and their utility allies did not want and 

 do not want the public to have any say in their empire building, 

 but the public had to pay for it. Our electric bills are at least twice 

 as high today because they spent our money like water on WPPSS 

 without voter approval. 



Chairman DeFazio and I studied the history of the BPA. We read 

 the Congressional debate in 1937 when the BPA Act was up for 

 consideration in the House. Leading the debate was that grand old 

 man of Oregon politics, former Governor Walter Pierce, a fighting 

 populist who went on to serve four or five terms in the House. Do 

 you know what Congressman Pierce said in that debate? He said 

 quote, "The BPA" — it was being established by the Act — "will be 

 the people's agency to provide everyone with low-cost electricity." 

 Now that was nice. But in that same debate. Pierce, wise in the 

 ways of government and power added the oppression clause. "But 

 I know," he said in the floor of the House, "that in a matter of 

 years, the BPA will be captured by the utilities and corporate inter- 



