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 Testimony 



We are presently negotiating a new power sales contract with 

 Bonneville. Some of the critical issues, and our preliminary 

 views on these matters, include the following: 



1. Tiered rates. If tiered rates are to be adopted, the 

 first step is for Bonneville to allocate the power from the 

 existing Federal Base System resources to the publicly owned 

 utilities. Each publicly owned utility should be entitled to 

 purchase the amount of FBS resources required to meet the loads 

 of the utility as of the time when the new contracts are 

 executed. Only the costs of these resources and related services 

 should be included in the rates attendant to this first tier. 



The needs of the utility that exceed its first tier 

 allocation above the new large single load definition would be 

 met by one of two alternatives. The utility could build 

 resources to meet the load or the utility could acquire more 

 power from Bonneville. If the utility bought the additional 

 power from Bonneville, the Bonneville rate charged for this powier 

 would be based on the costs incurred by Bonneville to acquire the 

 additional power. It is our opinion the Regional Act already 

 sets out a tiered rate definition. 



2. Conservation Program Funding. We believe that 

 Bonneville should provide the utilities with programs which make 

 funds available to the utilities to pursue conservation. 

 However, we also feel that each utility should be required to 

 carry the costs of the funds made available and each utility 

 should be given more freedom in the administration of the 

 programs. What the Region cannot afford is to incur high 

 Bonneville overhead charges to oversee and administer the 

 conservation programs which are also overseen and administered by 

 the utilities. 



3. Federal Debt Payments. When the dams were built in the 

 Northwest, the agreement was that the people of the Northwest 

 would repay the debt incurred to build the dams. This is a 

 fairly unique situation. Other projects and public works built 

 throughout the Country with "federal funds" are not paid for by 

 only the citizens that are located in the same geographical area 

 where the facilities are located. 



There is no reasonable rational to change the terms and 

 conditions under which the Northwest is required to pay for 

 "federal facilities" located in the Northwest. The citizens of 

 the Northwest are doing enough by paying for federal facilities 

 in the Northwest when other federal facilities located throughout 

 the Nation that add to the general economic well-being of a local 

 area are paid for by all United States citizens. This matter 

 needs to be resolved as soon as possible so that reasonable 

 economic planning can be accomplished. 



