40 



artificial and flawed signal about the artificial cost of power supply, 

 and raising BPA's rates will reduce wasteful use. 



The most powerful response that people like me and those of you 

 behind that table can make, is that there are other means that the 

 region is using to minimize wasteful use and to go out and try to 

 capture cost-effective opportunities to save energy. 



In order to make that case, it is, I think, terribly important that 

 we avoid situations like the one that is evidenced in the attach- 

 ment to my testimony, which I think is part of this discussion. 

 What I have attached to my testimony is a letter from the Clear- 

 water Power Company, which is a cooperative based in Lewiston, 

 Idaho, to its members sent at the end of August announcing that 

 the cooperative was extending and retaining a declining block rate 

 structure for all of its customers. And for those of you who don't 

 spend every week in the middle of rate cases, that is a structure 

 based on the premise that the more you use, the less you pay. 



In effect what the co-op is announcing to its members is that 

 they get a 33-percent discount on power purchases if they can raise 

 their consumption above a certain minimum level. And the letter, 

 with disarming candor, goes on to say that the reason for this is 

 to promote electric heat and increase the co-op's revenues. 



Mr. Chairman, there are times when diplomacy must give way 

 to candor. This is absolutely appalling. At a time when the region 

 is in deficit, at a time when power costs for all of the region are 

 rising sharply, at a time when environmental pressures are ever 

 more clearly upon us, and even if you didn't care about any of that, 

 I submit this kind of a policy continuing within the region is the 

 strongest possible invitation to the most unwelcome kind of con- 

 gressional intervention that Bill Drummond has devoted a career 

 to try to stop. 



This reminds us of why BPA must be more than just customer- 

 focused. I don't know how many Clearwaters are out there, Mr. 

 Chairman. I hope this Administrator and this task force will find 

 out, and I hope they will let utilities know that they are putting 

 the entire region at risk with this kind of policy. 



In invitations for more wasted electricity in the name of more 

 revenues, they are depriving us of the ability to respond to those 

 who say the only way to encourage more efficient consumption in 

 the region is to simply raise Bonneville's rates. 



The larger point that this letter illustrates is the absolute neces- 

 sity of retaining Bonneville's conservation leadership and Bonne- 

 ville's conservation achievements as, again, the most potent re- 

 sponse to those who say the greatest social good lies in simply add- 

 ing more costs to the rates. 



As regards the government corporation proposal, Mr. Chairman, 

 I know that you have relied and the committee members have re- 

 lied in substantial part on a report by the National Academy of 

 Public Administration called "Reinventing BPA." I think it is im- 

 portant for me in particular to acknowledge that I found it surpris- 

 ingly compelling, and I say surprisingly because when you get to 

 the end of the report, you find out that the only people the authors 

 consulted were Bonneville staff and representatives of large indus- 

 trial customers and utility customers. 



