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they are attempting to meet are set by the federal government, and the management 

 actions affecting Columbia River fish span four states and, in fact, two countries. 



Impact of Bonneville's budget cuts 



On July 2, Bonneville Administrator Randy Hardy announced rate increases of 

 between 14 and 16 percent for the two-year period beginning this October. Four 

 months earlier, a report indicated Bonneville might need a rate increase as high as 24 

 percent to meet all of its obligations, including those under the Northwest Power Act. 

 In a letter to Hardy in late April, the Council commented, "If you defer key programs 

 now, you may be inviting higher rate increases in the future." 



We remain concerned about the impact of Bonneville's proposed budget levels 

 on implementation of the Strategy for Salmon. Bonneville's Northwest Power Act 

 obligations are not discretionary. Bonneville should not use these key program levels 

 as contingency "shock absorbers" in times of financial stress, as the agency has been 

 forced to do in the past. It is important that rates can be ~ and are ~ adjusted as 

 needed to ensure that Northwest Power Act obligations are given the complete and 

 timely attention they deserve. The Council is continuing to discuss these concerns 

 with Bonneville. 



The Council's program as a model for coastwide salmon recovery 



Perhaps the chief benefit the Power Planning Council brings to salmon recovery 

 planning is a regional forum where everyone can participate in designing the program. 

 In addition, the Council retains policy control by writing the program that emerges from 

 the public process. As I mentioned earlier, the lack of both policy coordination and 

 broad public participation limited the Salmon Summit. 



Public participation and overall coordination are particularly important to natural 

 resources planning, which tends to be contentious. In the case of the spotted owl, for 

 example, the Pacific Northwest lost control of recovery planning to federal courts 

 largely because there was no regional forum where disputes could be aired and 

 resolved. In terms of contentiousness and impacts on people, the salmon problem has 

 the potential to eclipse the spotted owl problem by orders of magnitude. That's 

 because so much of what we do in the Northwest impacts salmon. Thus, public 

 participation and central coordination are all the more important. 



Our process has not been perfect. Our critics say we have done both too much 

 and too little for the salmon, and we have been sued. But the important point is that our 

 process, established in the Northwest Power Act, brought together all of the diverse 

 interests to develop a salmon recovery program. Similarly, it is crucial that a coastwide 

 salmon recovery program include a public process to bring together the diverse 



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