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decisions will produce benefits for their consumers. Those that do 

 not will reap the cost consequences, this as it should be. 



BPA should not be a social engineer. Very frankly, BPA has not 

 provided nor do I have enough information to speak concerning the 

 Tenaska project due to the confidentiality issue. Over the long run, 

 gas should remain very competitive, although there v^dll be periods 

 of price volatility. 



In general, you can expect to pay very high price premiums to 

 obtain long-term price certainty. As a BPA firm power customer, 

 this is a real concern. In practice, there is a significant difference 

 in the way BPA acquires conservation compared to other resources. 

 In reality and fi-om personal experience, the criteria and proce- 

 dures are quite different as implemented by BPA. 



As a shareholder in Boardman and in our efforts to market the 

 53 megawatts, BPA was extremely detailed in all aspects, including 

 all costs. However, when it comes to the evaluation of conservation 

 costs, they cleeirly have refused to include the total real costs, both 

 by BPA and, specifically, the utilities. 



Quite honestly, the program people within Bonneville don't want 

 to know what the real cost is for fear that many of the programs 

 would be exposed for their liberal not-cost-effective programs 

 they've evolved into. When comparing other resource acquisitions 

 to conservation, the real truth is many of the conservation pro- 

 grams should be eliminated. 



Let me be very blunt. Many of the conservation programs and 

 fundings have become viewed as entitlements and not considerate 

 of cost-effectiveness. These programs within BPA, as well as within 

 many of the utilities, are actually being used to milk the system 

 as marketing schemes and provide employment under the guise of 

 conservation. 



We recognize the competitive elements that prompt developers to 

 want to keep the details of their acquisition contracts confidential. 

 However, there is a competing interest on the part of consumers 

 who want to know how and the t3^e of financial commitments BPA 

 is making on their behalf. One way to accomplish this would be to 

 disclose the total purchase price and levehzed cost of each project. 



There are two points that I believe should be considered regard- 

 ing fiiel of choice. First, there is a variety of issues that need to 

 be addressed before a regional policy on fuel choice is implemented. 

 Because of regional diversity, we believe that the fuel choice is best 

 addressed at the local utihty level. 



Current signals are yielding a result that sees 95 percent of the 

 new housing market choosing natural gas over electricity to serve 

 household heating needs. Given this level of gas utilization, one 

 wonders what additional steps would be effective. 



Given that consumers are already responding to the price dif- 

 ferential between natural gas and electricity, what is the likelihood 

 that electric utilities would be paying for a consumer decision that 

 would not occur otherv^rise? 



The second point deals with the regional diversity. Member utili- 

 ties of the public power community represent a diverse set of busi- 

 ness viewpoints and operating environments. Some utilities are lo- 

 cated where natural gas is not even available. Others are in direct 

 competition with natural gas or dual-fuel utihties. 



