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today's ramp-up is all too likely to become tomorrow's plateau 

 or ramp-down. It is also difficult in the extreme to build a 

 sustained market interest in conservation programs when the 

 terms on which the programs are offered are subject to 

 frequent and abrupt changes. 



3. Undoing the Regional Act 



When the Regional Act was adopted by Congress in 1980 it 

 reflected a broad consensus on the acquisition and sale of 

 power in the Pacific Northwest. Today it sometimes seems as 

 though little is left of the explicit and implicit assumptions 

 upon which the Regional Act was premised. 



There is nothing wrong with revisiting the premises of any 

 such legislation — far from it. Periodic evaluation and 

 reassessment is particularly important in the case of an 

 innovative, complex system such as that established by the 

 Regional Act. This hearing serves a useful purpose in raising 

 these fundamental issues concerning resource acquisition. 

 Absent these hearings we could face the prospect of seeing the 

 foundation beneath the Regional Act (and the NPPC's Regional 

 Plan) erode away without the benefit of a public debate and 

 considered review. 



The act's preference for coordinated regional action to meet 

 the region's load growth was based on a couple of premises — 



premises which Seattle believes are still valid. 



I 



The Regional Act's most fundamental resource premise is that 

 when it comes to growth of electric power use in the region, 

 we are all in this together. Instead of declaring 

 insufficiency, Bonneville is to work in partnership with its 

 customer utilities to acquire new resources to meet the 



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