very quickly around us, and those who followed the Energy Act last 

 year know that I was one of the few conferees to vote against it. 

 There is some good in that and some bad in it and there are some 

 real imponderables. One of the great imponderables for us in the 

 western United States is what it is going to do in terms of trans- 

 mission in this movement toward open access of transmission and 

 what that means for power providers and purchasers in the West. 

 In fact, I just heard about a move by a very large multinational 

 firm that is looking at setting up a power futures market in the 

 western United States, dependent upon wheeling. We might even 

 go beyond that. You know, there was a day in Springfield, where 

 I live, where we had retailers competing street by street, house by 

 house. There is a question of whether or not we have created that 

 with the Energy Act that passed last year, which I am afraid that 

 many of my colleagues did not fully understand. 



So the times are changing, and BPA and the rest of us are going 

 to have to change with them. So, it is very timely to discuss the 

 competitiveness of BPA. Vice President Gore has proposed to — I 

 hate it, but he calls it reinvent BPA. BPA has its own competitive- 

 ness review going. We are beginning to question the way we have 

 done things and how we are going to do them in the future. But 

 one thing needs to underlie all of this, and the first witness, I 

 think, will underscore it. That is, in my very strong opinion, any- 

 body who thinks that we are going to have competitiveness, 

 unbundling of services, or reinvention of BPA as a way to get out 

 from the mandates of the Northwest Power Act is dead wrong. At 

 least, I will do my best in the United States Congress to see that 

 does not happen. I think the Act was right on target, and that was 

 one of the reasons I voted against the Energy Bill last year. It was 

 not enough on target in moving this country toward a long-term 

 conservation, renewable, affordable energy power path, including 

 good consideration of environmental impacts. The Northwest Power 

 Act did that. That is not to say there will not be dramatic changes, 

 but it will shape those changes. So those few recalcitrants out there 

 who hold out the hope that this is the way to escape from those 

 mandates, that is not going to happen. So adjust your thinking a 

 little bit and work creatively with us as we grow into the next cen- 

 tury. 



With that, I first will see if my colleague Mr. LaRocco has any 

 opening remarks. 



STATEMENT OF HON. LARRY LaROCCO 



Mr. LaRocco. Mr. Chairman, you had brief remarks and I have 

 even briefer. I just want to thank you for being in Boise, Idaho, 

 yesterday to discuss the salmon issue. I am pleased to be in your 

 district, and to the people of your district, I just want to say as a 

 colleague and member of the Natural Resources Committee, there 

 is not another member in the whole House of Representatives who 

 is more familiar with these issues than you. I look forward to the 

 testimony today. This is an issue of great interest to me. I do not 

 have the grasp of it that you do, so I will be listening intently. I 

 am very pleased to sit on the task force with you. I tlunk you are 

 doing a great job and I look forward to it. 



Mr. DeFazio. I thank you for being here, Larry. 



