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STATEMENT OF ROBERT V. MYERS 



Mr. Myers. Grood morning. I am Robert V. Myers, senior vice 

 president operations of the Puget Sound Power and Light Com- 

 pany. We are an investor-owned utility with about 800,000 cus- 

 tomers in Washington State. 



I would like to thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Congressman 

 LaRocco, for this opportunity to present Puget's views on the chal- 

 lenges and opportunities facing the Bonneville Power Administra- 

 tion. 



A consistent theme of many of the comments we have heard 

 today and will hear ongoing is the recognition of the challenges fac- 

 ing BPA due to dramatically changing circumstances. All of us here 

 at this table have seen similar challenges, and we have had to re- 

 spond individually with our own companies with efforts to become 

 more competitive and more cost effective. In response to the spe- 

 cific challenges, Bonneville under the leadership of Administrator 

 Hardy is undertaking an extraordinary effort to reinvent itself, to 

 become more customer focused, cost conscious and flexible. BPA is 

 attempting to change its internal culture and make its products 

 and services more available and usable by its customers. 



As you have heard, BPA is undertaking an unprecedented func- 

 tion-by-function review in which BPA is working with the assist- 

 ance of an advisory group, of which I am a member and several 

 other witnesses here today are also members. This review is on an 

 agency-wide basis and is looking at BPA current operations. I can- 

 not stress too strongly my belief that Administrator Hardy and his 

 management team are doing a superb job under difficult cir- 

 cumstances. As BPA pointed out here today, it has a near-term op- 

 portunity to reduce cost and increase its responsiveness. And we 

 are also hearing today a diverse range of interests that are going 

 to be weighed in against and used to judge the outcome of this 

 process. The long-term challenge is to define Bonneville's role in 

 light of these changing circumstances that are facing BPA, the re- 

 gion and the utility industry. 



BPA has to promote teamwork in the Northwest. The starting 

 place for defining BPA's role should be the values of the Northwest 

 community, which all utilities in the region serve. Admittedly, 

 there may be a conflict between values. For example, a need for 

 economic and reliable electric service often conflicts with the need 

 for environmental stewardship. Wisely crafted value-based policies, 

 however, can minimize these conflicts. 



BPA should not seek to be a competitor, even though we encour- 

 age its competitiveness. BPA is more than a utility. First and fore- 

 most, BPA is a federal governmental agency. For that reason, Con- 

 gress and the courts have entrusted it with authority and discre- 

 tion not granted to other utilities. BPA should not use that author- 

 ity or discretion to advance its own interest as a utility over the 

 interest of another regional utility and their customers. This is es- 

 pecially important now that BPA has undertaken to reinvent itself 

 to be more competitive. BPA can and should assist the region's util- 

 ities in providing an economical and reliable power supply for serv- 

 ice to their customers. In this sense, Bonneville does not and 

 should not compete with Northwest utilities but rather should 

 work with them to do what is best for the Northwest. The need for 



