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This was a very discouraging meeting for many of us and during the lunch break I bet a senior BPA official that rather than a rate decrease, I thought the small rural utilities like OPALCO would see an increase. In a moment of weakness, I bet her a dinner that our rates would go up by 25% by the end of 1996. I figured it was a win-win situation for me - either I would get a free dinner or the rate increase would not be as bad as I thought. A short while later I was explaining the wisdom of my bet to another BPA official who wanted to bet a lunch that the rate increase would be less than 15%. Since I already had a bet at 25%, I figured I had to take the 15% bet. BPA has announced their final rates to go into effect on October first. Not only did they not go up by 25%, they didn't go up by 15% either. In fact they went down over 16% - 41% below where I thought they would be. I am happily going to pay off my bets. I would not accuse these two people of adjusting BPA's rates to win the bet (they weren't directly involved with the rate case), but every time I talked to them, they knew exactly what the latest proposed rate revision would do to OPALCO's rates. I felt pretty good that, out of 173 BPA customers, these people knew what their changes would do to OPALCO. Maybe I was not as dumb as I sounded when I made the bets. It is now time to move on to the next major issue: The ongoing Regional Review of the Northwest Power System. Where the Rate Case focused on what we will pay BPA for the next five years, the Regional Review is part of a process that will ultimately decide if there will even be a BPA in five years. Jerry Leone did a guest OPALCOGRAM several weeks back about the regional review. I will follow up with some new information over the next several weeks. Again, I think that the small outlying utilities like OPALCO are at a special risk. This time BPA is as concerned as we are over the outcome of the review. Now, if I can just find someone to bet with . . . . .
Doug Bechtel
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