44 



but I think it would be appropriate to explore all of those, and we 

 are very open to exploring those with the task force. 



Mr. Kreidler. Very good. Thank you very much, 



Mr. DeFazio. In response to the gentleman, we will be holding 

 a hearing on the long-term perspective on Bonneville, and that will 

 go to structural issues, because when you begin to look at debt re- 

 structuring it has implications under the Budget Act which could 

 require a more independent agency and other constructs, and I 

 have said to people we are going to look at all those things. So I 

 will be certain and invite the gentleman back. 



If I could return to where I left off, which is on WPPSS. I don't 

 want to belabor this because I have many other questions, but you 

 said you have a permanent staff of 12. I don't necessarily want to 

 second guess management's judgment here, but I am concerned 

 that when you permanently assign people to monitor another agen- 

 cy that ultimately they begin to develop a stronger alliance to the 

 other agency where they are permanently stationed than to the 

 agency which stationed them there to begin with, and institutional 

 concerns begin to come into play. 



I would urge the Administrator and senior staff, in conjimction 

 with the new director or administrator of WPPSS, to take a very 

 hard look at the operations of WPPSS and begin to exert pressure, 

 holding out this ultimate tool you have, which is disapproval, if 

 they are not following prudent utility practices and hewing to other 

 concerns that you have. So I just want to make that point one more 

 time. 



I do have a question about mothballing since we are there. I ap- 

 preciate the fact that you have finally, after many years of pro- 

 longed agony, decided to cut off the continued expenditure of funds 

 for mothballing, but my understanding is that there will be 

 mothballing costs in 1994. Is that correct? And what would the 

 amount be? 



Mr. Hardy. I don't expect, Mr. Chairman, that we will realize 

 much of those savings in 1994. We have got a number of steps that 

 we have to go through before we can formally reach the termi- 

 nation decision. Most of them are legal. 



Probably the most significant of them is a declaratory judgment 

 action that we will need to pursue as a result of agreements we 

 made with the bond fund trustees for Plants 1 and 3 when we did 

 the refinancing several years ago to make sure that termination 

 does not constitute an event of default for purposes of sale of the 

 assets of those two plants. That will also help us clarify some other 

 questions relative to use of the construction fund for Plant 1 and 

 some other issues. 



So it is about six to nine months away from the point where we 

 can actually reach a termination decision, per se, and I think if we 

 start realizing savings in this rate period, it probably won't be until 

 1995, but if you don't get started you never finish these things. 



Mr. DeFazio. All right. 



Is it your understanding that the WPPSS board is now commit- 

 ted to termination? 



Mr. Hardy. The Executive Board is strongly committed to it, but 

 they are not the ones who make the decision. It is the WPPSS Full 

 Board which, ironically, provides virtually no policy guidance for 



