85 



Mr. DeFazio. Thank you. 

 Ms. Patton. 



STATEMENT OF SARA PATTON 



Ms. Patton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the task 

 force. My name is Sara Patton, and on November 8, I will be the 

 director of the Northwest Conservation Act Coalition. 



Mr. DeFazio. Congratulations. 



Ms. Patton. Thank you. I would like to note that Cassie Golden, 

 who has been working with you on these issues for a long time, I 

 may say very happily will continue to do so as policy director of the 

 Coalition. 



The Coalition is an alliance of over 60 public interest agencies 

 and utilities and businesses from all over the four Northwest 

 States and from British Columbia. The constituency is large and 

 diverse. It includes the League of Women Voters, organizations 

 such as the Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs that advocate 

 for low-income citizens, research organizations, consumer advo- 

 cates, and public utilities, including the Salem Electric Co-op, the 

 Emerald People's Utility Districts and the city of Ashland. 



The Coalition is united in seeking the purposes of the Northwest 

 Power Conservation Act of 1980, to encourage conservation and ef- 

 ficiency in the use of electric power; to encourage the development 

 of renewable resources within the Pacific Northwest; to ensure ade- 

 quate, efficient and economical energy services; and to make the 

 public and its State and local tribal governments full partners in 

 building a regional energy future that emphasizes conservation, re- 

 newable resources and environmental protection; to distribute the 

 cost and benefits of the regional power system fairly, and to protect 

 and mitigate and enhance the fish and wildlife resources of the Co- 

 lumbia basin. 



Today I am going to speak only on the issue of the corporation. 

 I am very grateful that you are willing to accept our written com- 

 ments later and will address those questions later. 



First we would like to reaffirm and thank this task force, its 

 mandate and its work on examining BPA's operations and evaluat- 

 ing how its meeting the mandates of the Northwest Conservation 

 Act has been very helpful. 



It seems as though taking the time that you have taken to inves- 

 tigate these issues and to decide what actions might be taken may 

 be an interesting issue given this corporation proposal, since you 

 haven't come to your conclusions yet, and we may have a cart- 

 before-the-horse problem. I will say that the Coalition is, as many 

 others, certainly interested in the corporation proposal, and it very 

 well may be a good step. But it is a solution to a problem that your 

 task force is not quite finished investigating. 



Further, it is hard to tell whether a federal corporation is a good 

 idea because we don't have a detailed proposal in front of us yet. 



With all that said, the Northwest Conservation Act Coalition 

 strongly supports Bonneville's sincere efforts to increase efficiency. 

 Conservation and efficiency are more or less synonymous, and we 

 believe the efficiency must mean achieving goals with fewer re- 

 sources, not cutting costs and in the process failing to achieve 

 goals. 



