576 



Nonetheless, Bonneville's revenues and costs do swing, and steps 

 can be taken to provide more stable funding. Bonneville should 

 not ignore the option of eliminating special rates for aluminum 

 companies and irrigators as part of its attempt to improve its 

 financial condition. That change alone could cover the 

 anticipated future costs of the fish and wildlife program. 

 Bonneville should also consider establishing a mechanism that 

 automatically adjusts rates with a more sensitive trigger than 

 the existing provision. Rate changes could be triggered at the 1 

 percent level at 6 month intervals, rather than at the current, 

 rarely used 10 percent level. 



Bonneville has little control over the revenue variability caused 

 by hydrology and weather. In the dry winters of 1992 and 1993, 

 The agency spent hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase 

 power to meet its load. In wetter years, the sale of nonfirm 

 power generated with higher flows contributes as much as 15 

 percent of its revenue (hundreds of millions of dollars) . 

 Although the schedule and extent of this variability cannot be 

 predicted, the fact of hydrologic variation is as predictable as 

 death and taxes. One way Bonneville could provide more stable 

 funding is to establish a fund for fish and wildlife purposes, 

 paying into it differentially in wet years when revenues are 

 higher. Such a program could also discourage the use of wet -year 

 revenues to keep rates artificially low. 



Costs are the other side of the equation defining Bonneville's 

 financial condition. Bonneville is now engaged in a cost-cutting 

 exercise as part of its function-by-function review. We would 

 support efforts to eliminate Bonneville's fish and wildlife 

 activities that duplicate those of the Council or the fish 

 agencies and tribes. We could support an initiative that aims 

 to monitor results more carefully and improve the effectiveness 

 of fish and wildlife efforts. But we do not support a cost- 

 cutting exercise in which Bonneville defines acceptable results 

 outside a framework of performance objectives approved by the 

 Council, or expands its role in fish and wildlife decision- 

 making. 



There are other options for controlling costs, particularly the 

 high cost of purchasing power to meet load. Bonneville has not 

 exhausted the potential to establish environmentally beneficial 

 energy exchanges with other regions. The reoperation of Glen 

 Canyon Dam, for example, may facilitate exchanges based on 

 different regional operating constraints. 



Bonneville has broad latitude to seek least-cost means of 

 achieving biologically equivalent salmon objectives. It should 

 leave the determination of the appropriate objectives to the 

 Council and the fishery agencies. 



