122 



Mr. DeFazio. With that, if you have time, it will take me about 

 10 minutes, because we are in Rayburn, to get over and back. 



Mr. Hardy. Yes, sir, I do. 



Mr. DeFazio. Then we will suspend for probably 10 minutes. I 

 will go over and vote, come back, and then we will continue prob- 

 ably another 10 minutes' worth of questions. 



[Recess.] 



Mr. DeFazio. I think we have covered the debt issue fairly well. 

 Just a couple of questions on the corporation. We had a previous 

 panel, and there was a fair amount of discussion about the process 

 that might be followed in developing the corporation proposal, and 

 I was wondering if you had any ideas. 



We have the report. Actually I think Mr. Cavanagh and Ms. Bodi 

 raised concerns that they had not been involved in the discussions. 

 Apparently some utilities had been involved, at least peripherally, 

 but principally that the discussions, as they characterized it, had 

 taken place between BPA and the 



Mr. Hardy. True. 



Mr. DeFazio. So we were discussing how to widen the net to 

 allay some people's concerns. One thing I would suggest as part of 

 the process, and see what you think, is essentially we adopt up 

 front — it seemed to me there is pretty good agreement on the prin- 

 ciples that this is not an attempt to end run the Northwest Power 

 Act, the conservation and renewable mandates, fish and wildlife re- 

 sponsibilities. It seems to me if we adopted some principles up 

 front that might allay a lot of the concerns I am hearing from peo- 

 ple, and then any thoughts you might have on the process. 



Mr. Hardy. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I do have two or three. I think 

 several sorts of things might be helpful. Today we have received a 

 list, essentially an outline, that describes the legislation as we have 

 conceived it, that has statements of that type although they are not 

 cast exactly in the form of principles. But it clearly says, "^No 

 change in organic statutes like the Northwest Power Act, Trans- 

 mission Act, no change in environmental responsibilities like 

 NEPA, and no change contemplated in the institutional relation- 

 ships that Bonneville has to the Power Planning Council, to its cus- 

 tomers, to other constituents in the region, or to the Northwest del- 

 egation, appropriations committees." 



And we have discussed those. I personally have discussed some 

 of those issues, not only with customers, but also with the Power 

 Planning Council and public interest groups. That is far, however, 

 from being enough in terms of working with what inevitably will 

 be an evolving structure here. 



I think we probably should have the National Academy of Public 

 Administration who authored the report talk to a wider range of 

 people — the Power Planning Council and the public interest group 

 leaders in particular. We will probably want to have a discussion 

 with the NAPA authors. I think both would benefit from the ex- 

 change of information there. 



The Power Planning Council has already, under Angus Duncan's 

 leadership, said that it intends to have a public process to look at 

 this. I view that as a partnership with us, and I think it is per- 

 fectly appropriate. I have also talked with the Deputy Secretary 



