393 



tive protests or judicial challenges to any Bonneville decision which 

 may be brought by disappointed resource proposers. 



What Bonneville needs to know is how much new output is re- 

 quired to meet Bonneville's contract demand under the existing 

 and new contracts. Bonneville also needs to be given more ability 

 to act quickly and efficiently in making its choices. For example, 

 the procedures which determine whether Bonneville can acquire 

 the output from a proposed resource without destroying the utility 

 sponsor's ability to finance the construction of the resource with 

 tax-exempt bonds, that should be streamlined. 



Most importantly, it may be necessary for this Committee to ex- 

 amine what could be done to protect Bonneville from litigation con- 

 cerning the choices Bonneville makes among various new resource 

 proposals, I recognize that this is a complex subject, but, again, we 

 feel that most of the inefficiencies attendant to the Bonneville re- 

 source acquisition process are the result of Bonneville's efforts to 

 protect the agency from lawsuits which may result from any Bon- 

 neville choice. 



In conclusion, Bonneville, a single-purpose Federal agency, has 

 been put in a multi-purpose management role, competing with sin- 

 gle-purpose generating entities. BPA has been saddled with goals 

 not effectively planned and, in many ways, in conflict with other 

 Federal agencies. 



BPA has been considered a focal point for activity, such as fish 

 and wildlife, a water management role that conflicts with other 

 agencies with multi-purpose roles in water management, and in re- 

 source development that has always been exempted from BPA by 

 law. 



BPA has been and should continue to purchase output from re- 

 sources that provide efficient, cost-effective power supply, but the 

 development of resources, including conservation, should be left 

 with others. 



All of these challenges are hindered by a political process set up 

 by the Regional Act of 1980. Let's get other political issues out of 

 our life blood, electric energy, and get control of this resource back 

 in the hands of the people who will pay for and benefit. 



I'd like to add I am a retired engineer with the Corps of Engi- 

 neers, a registered professional engineer in the State of Oregon, 

 and I listened to Mr. Ron Wilkerson's comments and I support 

 those wholehe£irtedly. He did a very fine job. 



We want to thank you again for the opportunity to testify. The 

 PUD is willing to provide any further information that might be 

 helpful to the Committee and we'd appreciate your acceptance of a 

 somewhat expanded version of the text of my remarks as the writ- 

 ten testimony of the PUD. 



Thank you, sir. 



[Prepared statement of Mr. Jones follows:] 



