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Suppose you manufacture jet skis, and their use will soon be banned except for those that emit fewer than 20 decibels of sound (and your competitor now produces those). Or let's say that you, a licensed real estate broker, learn that next year licenses will no longer by needed to sell real estate. Then imagine spending a solid thirty hours a week, for six months, in meetings with colleagues, competitors, customers, employees, legislators and special interest groups trying to sort out how your business will operate under the new rules. This is what is happening in the electric industry. It's a dream assignment for consultants and attorneys. Owing to myriad circumstances beyond anyone's control - low natural gas prices; new laws allowing competition among power suppliers; the staggering costs borne by regional ratepayers to pay off the WPPSS debt, to restore the salmon runs and to fund other social benefits - Bonneville Power Administration's wholesale rates to utilities such as OPALCO are now above the market price. In response to this fluctuating situation, the governors of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana have initiated a formal, year-long study of the electric industry in the Northwest. Participants and energy groupies representing every imaginable interest are wearing sandwich boards proclaiming, "Will Meet for Food". A goal of the Comprehensive Regional Review, as it's known, is to fix whatever it is that's broken and thereby bring down prices for consumers. Because BPA, OPALCO's sole power supplier, is such a huge creature with formidable market share, assets and obligations, BPA's future is a central element of the review. What does this arcane and possibly boring review have to do with you, a residential consumer? Especially since OPALCO has signed an agreement to continue buying power from BPA for five more years? Perhaps your primary interest is seeing a low monthly bill with rate increases occurring only every other decade. In that case, you won't mind if that new backup power cable isn't installed and your power goes out next winter. Anyway, so what - BPA said it might pick up the tab for the $15 million cable. You should know that one of the subjects under review is subsidies, of all kinds, that BPA (meaning you) pays for. These subsidies include not only special deals for individual utilities, but more broadly distributed benefits such as the low density discount; postage stamp rates; conservation; and the residential exchange. Large users of electricity - Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, Boise Cascade - now served by utilities that purchase from BPA want to be able to buy on the open market from the cheapest supplier. Cheaper power for them might mean the difference between staying in business and having jobs for local people, or closing up shop. On the other hand, if they no longer consume and pay for power from BPA, then people like you remain on the hook for the WPPSS debt and other BPA sunk costs. The Comprehensive Regional Review is attempting to strike a balance between these competing results. The clock can't be turned back. The utility industry, like the gas, airline and telephone industries before it, is changing from a regulated monopoly system to one where utilities must compete for the privilege of serving consumers. Stay tuned - the contents of your pocketbook are at stake.
Doug Bechtel
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