190 



Northwest. To the extent that all Federal taxpayers have made an investment in the 

 Columbia River system, one might argue that they have an ownership share as well. In all 

 the business rhetoric emerging from the competitiveness initiative, we find no reference to 

 the interests of the shareholders. 



Most of BPA's customers opposed the provisions of the Act that make BPA accountable to 

 the public and public officials. They opposed provisions that make BPA responsible for 

 the pursuit of values larger than their own bottom line. They made plain their preference 

 for a Planning Council composed entirely of utility representatives and for an Act without 

 fish and wildlife, environmental, conservation, and public involvement mandates. Their 

 position was clear, but they did not prevail because their position served the utilities' 

 interests at the expense of the public interest. 



Now, under the guise of "competitiveness," those same customers are trying to reverse the 

 Act's verdict, without the bother of actually going to Congress to get it repealed. BPA has 

 formed an influential "customer review group" to re-evaluate its programs; there is no 

 "review group" for non-customers. As part of its "reinvention," BPA recentiy completed a 

 comprehensive survey of customers entided "From Insight to Action: Customers' 

 Values/Satisfaction;" there was no comparable survey of the public, public officials, states, 

 tribes, agencies, public interest groups, or anyone else for that matter. The customers 

 make no bones about their belief that they, and they alone, have the right to define BPA's 

 mission and policies. Judging by who they have invited to the "reinvention" party thus 

 far, we can only conclude that BPA concurs with the customers' judgment 



The goals of the Act are there for good reasons, and those reasons are not inconsistent with 

 competitiveness. They direct the region toward energy programs that preserve the 

 NorUiwest's comparative advantage by using our inexpensive hydropower as efficientiy as 

 possible; protecting our incomparable natural resources; and restoring our economically, 

 culturally, environmentally valuable fisheries. They reduce the potential for paralyzing, 

 expensive conflicts over energy resource development by making the public and its state, 

 local, and tribal governments full partners in the region's energy planning process. They 

 are goals, in short, that enhance the competitiveness of the Northwest's economy and the 

 attractiveness of the region as a place to live and work. That is the kind of competitiveness 

 that Congress had in mind when it passed the Act We would urge this Task Force to 

 reaffirm that definition. 



We believe that this is a crucial moment for Congress to reinforce the Act's vision of an 

 economically and environmentally sound region^ energy program. As we noted, we are 

 eager to apply market forces as a way to focus BPA more decisively on its fundamental 

 purposes. Bui, at the same moment that we embrace market mechanisms to help us 

 accomplish our goals more efficientiy, we must actively and unambiguously reassert those 

 goals. Without our combined and determined effort to reaffirm these goals, BPA seems 

 prepared to adopt a definition of competitiveness that strongly favors the customers over 

 the shareholders. It's time for a shareholders meeting. 



In adopting the Act, Congress recognized that preserving the long-term economic and 

 environmental well-being of the region means using the ouqjut of the Coliunbia River 

 system efficientiy, protecting our natural resources, and ensuring that decision-makers are 

 held accountable to those who must ultimately pay the bill. Congress was right in 1980 

 and still is. But being right won't help yoiu" constituents much unless you reaffirm those 

 goals, quickly and decisively, as non-negotiable elements of the "reinvention" process. 



Thank you again for soUciting our input, and for your determination to hold BPA and its 

 wholesale customers accountable to die public interest 



NCAC page 3 



