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operating agencies, hot Bonneville. Power output from the FCRPS 

 is affected by many different requirements that the operating 

 agencies must meet, including the need to satisfy water rights 

 claims under State law, flood control, navigation, and, of 

 course, endangered species protection. Bonneville's legal 

 responsibility is to market the hydroelectricity not consumed by 

 the projects themselves. 16 U.S.C. S 825s. To the extent 

 Bonneville has signed contracts to provide electricity in excess 

 of that generated by the Bureau and the Corps, the cost of 

 meeting these contractual obligations is Bonneville's. 



The longstanding policy of assigning piirchase power costs to 

 power is dismissed in the opinion which states, "That the 

 purchase of replacement power furthers the power purpose of the 

 project is of no consequence. " (p. li) No statute, regulation, 

 case law or administrative ruling is cited in support of this 

 assertion. Instead, the opinion cites a December 1993 draft 

 report by the Corps of Engineers regarding the allocation of 

 construction and operation and maintenance costs (OiM) for 

 proposed dam modifications that would benefit all project 

 purposes. (p. 11, note 9). The allocation of construction and OiM 

 costs by the Corps for a measure that benefits all project 

 purposes is irrelevant to the issue of purchase power. 



The opinion posits that Sec. 4(h) (10) (c) read in combination with 

 Section 8(a) of the Act, which gives Bonneville the authority to 

 make short-term power purchases due to changes in flows, supports 

 allocating certain power purchase costs to non-power purposes. I 

 am unaware of any language in the statute or legislative history 

 of the Act that support this interpretation. In fact, the plain 

 language and legislative history of the Act are to the contrary. 

 Section 2 of the Act, states that a purpose of the Act is to 

 "provide that the customers of the Bonneville Power 

 Administration and their consumers continue to pay all costs 

 necessary to produce , transmit and conserve resources to meet the 

 region's electric power requirements...." 16 U.S.C. §839(4) 

 (emphasis added). Section 7(a)(1) of the Act directs Bonneville 



to recover in its rates, " the costs associated with the 



accmisition . conservation and transmission of electric power..." 

 16 U.S.C. 839e(a) (1) (emphasis added). The plain language of 

 other statutes that preceded the Act. and continue to apply to 

 Bonneville is also counter to the conclusion that purchase power 

 costs can be allocated to non-power purposes. For example, The 

 Flood Control Act of 1944 requires that Bonneville recover the 

 "cost of producing such electric energy" marketed by the agency. 

 16 U.S.C. §825s. 



The opinion's conclusion that Section 4 of the Act can be 

 construed to make certain purchase power costs the responsibility 

 of the taxpayer is also inconsistent with the statements of 

 Representative Lujan, a Member of the Interior Committee, who, 

 according to the legal opinion, worked with the Ad Hoc Pacific 

 Northwest Power-Fisheries Committee to draft Section 4. (p. 9) As 

 part of his discussion of the Act, including Section 4, 

 Representative Lujan said: 



It provides for the rebuilding of the salmon and steelhead 

 runs that have been damaged by hydro development on the 

 Columbia River, with the cost to be paid by the ratepayers 

 in the Northwest, not the U.S. taxpayers. 



Every single thing that Bonneville is authorized to do in 

 the act must be paid for by the power consumers of the 

 Northwest, and by nobody else. 126 Cong. Rec. 9845 (Sept. 

 29, 1980). 



Representative Lujan's statements are consistent with the plain 

 language of the Act and statements made by Representative Swift, 

 who played a major role in the drafting of the Act, and 

 Representative Symms, a member of the Interior Committee, that 

 all costs associated with the Act would be borne by BPA 

 ratepayers. 126 Cong. Rec. 9851 (Sept. 29, 1980) (Statement of 



