377 



Hydro System 



The hydroelectric system has already changed In response to the Endangered 

 Species Act. Over the past 10 years $1 Billion has been spent by the people of 

 the Northwest for Salmon. The people buying power from our Mid-Columbia Dams 

 have spent an additional $250 Million thus far and currently we are in the 

 process of making decisions that will cost $100' s of Millions more in coming 

 years . 



At Grant County, we have lost lOX of our generation capabilities to Salmon. 

 Replacement power costs 4 times as much. This loss occurs because 10 million 

 acre feet of water -- twice the volume of Lake Roosevelt that stretches from 

 Grant County in Central Washington to the Canadian Border -- was transferred from 

 power production to salmon flows. We will turn to conservation and natural gas 

 to try to maintain an inexpensive power supply. 



Let me put these expenditures by rate payers in perspective: 



1. I spent 10 years of my life as an employee of the State of Oregon during 

 which time I participated in countless public hearings on energy issues. 

 During that entire time I never met anyone who could not pay their 

 electric bill. Seven years ago I started work as the manager of the Canby 

 Oregon Electric Utility - my desk was 10 steps from the front counter. 

 When people couldn't pay I ended up talking with them. I vividly remember 

 my first experiences -- the carpenter with 5 kids waiting for a workers 

 comp check and the widow with social security as her only means of 

 support. People like this had never come to those public hearings. 



2. At Canby and at Grant I've seen utility employees -- sometimes they were 

 single moms earning less than $10 per hour -- reaching into their purses 

 to pay an elderly woman's bill. I've seen them mow a lawn for an elderly 

 customer who struggled with the decision whether to use $5 to pay kids to 

 mow the lawn or pay their electric bill. I've seen electric consumption 

 so low in apartments that the people had to be choosing between hot water, 

 heat or food. 



3. I've talked at rate hearings to gentle farmers who ask how they will 

 absorb higher irrigation costs when wheat is selling for what it did 10- 

 20-30 years ago. 



This is what $1 Billion means to carpenters, widows, the elderly and 

 farmers . 



The cost of salmon protection would result in 9X annual rate increases at 

 Grant County for the rest of the decade. The people in our county said that they 

 couldn't absorb those increases. Our response was to cut costs and to eliminate 

 one out of six jobs at our utility. This is what $1 Billion means to utility 

 workers . 



So we've endured changed flows -- 10 million acre feet of water for salmon, 

 $1 Billion and another $3-4 Billion in the coming years -- and the carpenter, the 

 widow, the elderly, the farmer and the utility worker paid the price. 



