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TESTIMONY BEFORE THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 



COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES 



by 



Fergus A. Pilon, General Manager 

 Columbia River People's Utility District 



for 



Non-Generating Public Utilities 



Members of the Committee: 



I am Fergus Pilon, Manager of Columbia River People's Utility District 

 headquartered in St. Helens, Oregon. Today I represent the 25 publicly and 

 cooperatively owned utility members of the Non-Generating Public Utilities 

 Group. These utilities represent a cross section of BPA's requirements 

 customers (customers that rely on Bonneville for meeting existing and future 

 load growth). As a group, our members and other similar Bonneville 

 customers have the most at stake in the reshaping of Bonneville into a more 

 competitive entity. If BPA rates are not competitive, then the customers we 

 serve and the economic fortunes of our service area will be at a competitive 

 disadvantage with their neighbors. Most of our members do not have any 

 imbedded low cost resources of their own to offset higher BPA rates. 

 Further, requirements customers generally serve the areas outside of the "1-5 

 Corridor," the areas suffering the economic decline of the timber and 

 agriculture industries. The economic welfare of these service areas depend 

 on reshaping Bonneville into a customer oriented cost-effective agency. We 

 are pleased to provide the following responses to the questions that the 

 Committee has asked us to address. 



1 . Why is it important for BPA to become more "competitive"? How 



likely is it that BPA will become a higher cost supplier of energy to the 

 region than other providers? Are there other reasons for BPA to 



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