248 



("T? Q Congressional Research Service • The Library of Congress • Washington, 



This volume of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Task Force 

 Briefing Book includes sections on BFA's legal authorities, court cases involving 

 BPA, and electric power issues. 



In addition to an indexed copy of the Pacific Northwest Electric Power 

 Planning and Ckjnservation Act (Pl,.96-501), the first section contains the 

 relevant annotated code. A selection of ei^teen court cases provides an 

 overview of legal issues that have been presented since enactment of the Pacific 

 Northwest Power Planning and Conservation Act, 



The remaining sections in Volume 1 contain material on electric power 

 issues. The section titled Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation 

 Act-General, presents a CRS report, journal article and law review articles, 

 describing the Act's implementation and BPA's general responsibilities. 



BPA's resource plans are presented in the next section. BPA is the source 

 for most of this information. Two journal articles are included that describe 

 perceived inefficiencies in the planning and operation of BPA. In addition, an 

 article produced by the Oak Ridge National Lab is included which compares the 

 costs and benefits of short-lead-time power plants and conservation. 



The third power section, Resource Planning: Conservation, includes a 

 description of how conservation is addressed in BPA's resource modeling 

 process. A law review article describes BPA's statutory obligations to unplement 

 conservation. Finally, an article is included which describes the results of one 

 residential conservation program. 



The section on debt repayment and the proposed BTU tax includes 

 President Clinton's plan for restructuring BPA' a debt Opposing views on 

 BPA's debt to the Federal government are expressed in two journal editorials. 

 A CRS memo is included that estimates the impact of the proposed BTU tax on 

 residential electric rates. The final section of this volume provides an overview 

 of the Northwest Power Planning Council's functions. 



