COMPETITIVENESS OF THE BONNEVILLE 

 POWER ADMINISTRATION 



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1993 



House of Representatives, 

 Task Force on Bonneville Power Administration, 



Committee on Natural Resources, 



Washington, DC. 

 The task force met, pursuEint to call, at 9:30 a.m. in the Council 

 Chambers, City Hall, Eugene, Oregon, Hon. Peter DeFazio (chair- 

 man of the task force) presiding. 



STATEMENT OF HON. PETER A. DeFAZIO 



Mr. DeFazio. Let us get started. We have got 17 witnesses and 

 a lot of ground to cover. We hope to get out here while the sun is 

 still shining so some people can enjoy this fabulous fall day. 



I have a brief opening statement, then Mr. LaRocco may want to 

 say some opening words and then we will move on to the wit- 

 nesses. 



First a little bit about procedure. Those who were in Boise yes- 

 terday or who have testified before know you have allocated time. 

 I usually start these hearings by sajdng that I have read every 

 piece of testimony. In this case because of the press of business, I 

 have not read all of the testimony, but I have read most of it. It 

 is most helpful if you summarize your statement. Yesterday, we 

 had some very good dialogue where subsequent witnesses com- 

 mented on, rebutted or expanded upon points made by prior wit- 

 nesses. That is always very helpful to the committee. So it is your 

 time to use as you wish. If you want to just plod through a pre- 

 pared statement, that is fine. If you can be more spontaneous, that 

 is great. When the yellow light goes on you have got one minute. 

 When the red light goes on you are done. We will strictly enforce 

 the time lines, and you will get to finish your sentence essentially. 



This is the fourth hearing of the task force. Yesterday, in Idaho, 

 we did a hearing entirely devoted to the issue of salmon and the 

 related factors that affect the system in the Northwest, particularly 

 river flows and drawdowns and a number of other issues, and de- 

 bated a lot of biology. Today, issues are more nuts and bolts, and 

 perhaps go a little bit more to the heart of the future of the provi- 

 sion of power supply in the Pacific Northwest. 



I have had some people in the industry say to me, well, why all 

 this talk about competitiveness and why the changes that are being 

 proposed? Why can things not be the way they are? We have even 

 had some testimony in a couple of hearings to that extent, or why 

 can they not be the way they were? Well, the world is changing 



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