STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN ROBERT F. (BOB) SMITH 



BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION TASK FORCE 



FIELD HEARING ON BPA RESOURCE ACQUISITION 



JULY 12, 1993 



Mr. Chairman, 



I want to thank you for scheduling this hearing today on the Bonneville Power 

 Administration's resource acquisition program. BPA has some interesting resource 

 programs in my district with geothermal and wind energy. I'm looking forward to 

 learning more about their entire resource program today. 



You know it's been a bad week when the best news you've heard about the Northwest 

 economy is that Bonneville is only raising their rates 15%. 



As the Chairman is painfully aware, President Clinton unveiled a plan recently that will 

 virtually dismantle the Northwest's timber economy. This indecent proposal is going to 

 cost the fragile Northwest economy tens of thousands of jobs, even though the 

 Administration has the audacity to claim that it will create jobs. 



I'm hopeful that Mr. Hardy will not make such a claim. He knows that basic industry in 

 the Northwest is linked to his agency, whether it's Northwest Aluminum just down the 

 road in The Dalles or Boeing in the Puget Sound. 



That is why I'm pleased that BPA's rate increase did not end up at 24% as some had 

 feared. Our whole manufacturing and agricultural sector could have been vanquished in 

 a single week. A lot of the credit should go to Randy Hardy for his austerity program 

 that kept this increase in check. 



Don't get me wrong, a 14% or 15% increase is going to take it's toll on our economy, but 

 it could have been worse. Mr. Hardy knows that BPA will have to make fundamental 

 changes if the agency is going to compete. But change is a relative term. The last time 

 Oregon went for change, boy, we sure got change. 



I don't believe change should mean sending aluminum companies and the 10,000 jobs 

 that go with them to Canada or anywhere else, or shutting down the irrigators who make 

 their living from the Columbia. 



Knowing that the role of the Northwest Power Planning Council will be discussed today, I 

 just have a few comments about certain Members lack of sensitivity to eastern 

 Oregonians. 



I wasn't really surprised to read that certain members of the Northwest Power Planning 

 Council thought the rate increase should be higher to create more revenue for fish and 

 wildlife programs. That's certainly not the view of the people I represent. 



