383 



and their operating life lasts for many more years. 

 Conservation resources benefits from long-term stability in 

 program offerings as well. New technologies, conservation or 

 generation, need a long-term perspective to reduce their costs 

 and increase our confidence in their output. 



Yet as a region we have done very poorly at taking the long- 

 term view in resource development. At every juncture since 

 1980 Bonneville and most of its customers have reacted sharply 

 to short-term rate pressures in setting resource budgets. 

 About the only long-term stability we have seen was in the 

 1986-91 view that the region was in a huge near-permanent 

 surplus and that resource spending should be as low as 

 possible. In conservation, the region fell short of meeting 

 the Council's objectives of capturing all lost opportunity 

 conservation and building the capability to deliver 

 conservation in all sectors when needed. A 1989 Planning 

 Council issue paper ("Assessment of Regional Progress Towards 

 Conservation Capability Building;" Paper 89-8; March 13, 1989) 

 reached the following conclusions about the region's 

 conservation performance during the period of the surplus: 



"Even with the significant advances in new residential 

 construction efficiency, the region is currently 

 capturing less than half of the potential resource in 

 this sector and far less in the commercial and industrial 

 sectors." (p. 3) 



"Bonneville is continuing its efforts to develop an 

 effective regionwide program in the retrofit commercial 

 sector. Cost and savings data and a trained labor force 

 are still lacking, while progress has been made, the 

 region has no assurance that the conservation potential 

 in the sector is available to the region." (p. ii) 



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