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Partners in Power Management 



Jim Ramseyer 



Testimony before the BPA Task Force 



on PMA Debt Buyout and 



BPA Government Corporation Proposals 



October 28, 1993 



Mr. Chairman: 



Thank you for the opportunity to testify today . My name is Jim Ramseyer and I 

 am the General Manager of the Blachly-Lane Cooperative Electric Association, a 

 rural electric co-op located in Eugene, Oregon. I am here representing the 

 Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative, a generation and transmission company 

 serving Blachiy-Lane and twenty-seven other utility systems spread out over 

 eight Western states. 



The proposals at issue today, refinancing Bonneville Power Administration's 

 (BPA) debt and making BPA a government corporation, are important to the 

 Northwest's energy future. However, neither of these proposals answer critical 

 questions about where we are heading in the region — how we are going to deal 

 with endangered salmon runs and how unbundled service and tiered rate systems 

 woxild economically impact customer's access to competitive power. What they do 

 gillow us to do is put Bonneville's financial house in order so that we can get on 

 with the business of answering those questions. 



Debt Buyout 



Arguments over the appropriated debt held by Power Marketing Administrations 

 (PMA) have dominated the regional policy arena for a decade. Seven strsiight 

 Presidential budget requests during the Bush years followed by President 

 Clinton's FY93 proposed budget have featured radical repayment acceleration 

 proposals for PMA debt. Congress has repeatedly torpedoed these proposals for 

 good reason . The interest rates for the Corps of Engineer and Bureau of 

 Reclamation projects that form the Northwest's Federal Base System (FBS) were 

 prevailing market rates at the time the projects were conceived and represent a 

 covenant agreed on jointly by the Federal government amd the citizens of the 

 Northwest. 



Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative 



711 N.E. Halsey 



Suite 200 



Portland, OR 97232-1288 



(503)288-1234 



Fax (503) 288-2334 



