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granted to other utilities. BPA must never use that authority 

 or discretion to advance its interest as a utility at the 

 expense of the interest of another regional utility and its 

 customers. This is especially important now that BPA has 

 undertaken to reinvent itself to be more "competitive." 



BPA can and should assist the region's utilities in 

 providing adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power 

 supply for service 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.^ BPA policies which are truly fair to all 

 can play a major role in this worthy goal. 



The need for cooperation among BPA and the region's 

 utilities is accented by the fact that BPA owns most of the 

 major transmission facilities in the region, and the utilities 

 in the region rely heavily on that transmission to integrate 

 their loads and resources. ^ 



^This means, for example, that, to the extent permitted by statutory 

 requirements, BPA should treat utilities in the region equally and not 

 favor one customer class or service over another. 



^The Pacific Northwest has a unique history with respect to 

 transmission. As recognized in the Conference Report for the National 

 Energy Policy Act of 1992, BPA historically 



has built most of the ir.traregional bulk transmission 

 facilities in the Pacific Northwest. This was done on 

 the basis of a regional consensus and the understanding 

 that BPA would make these transmission facilities 

 available for transmission of power for BPA's power and 

 transmission customers located in the Pacific Northwest. 



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