Secret Deal Creates Uncertainty

As a not-for-profit member-owned utility, certainty is imperative. Central Electric Cooperative wants to be certain now and in the long term that the electricity it provides to its members will remain clean, affordable and reliable.

CEC has had this certainty for decades due to the longstanding relationship with the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets the energy output from federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. However, litigation over the hydropower system has created more uncertainty than ever before.

Special interest groups have used the litigation system for decades in pursuit of dam removal, including suing the federal government regarding a recent record of decision that did not endorse their desired outcome: breaching the lower Snake River dams.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality has injected itself into the process, participating in confidential mediation with only select stakeholders to set them on the pathway toward reaching their desired goal.

Rural electric cooperatives and other public power utilities pay for the operation and maintenance of the federal Columbia River System Operations, funding more than $685 million annually for fish and wildlife programs. Despite underwriting the entire system, public power had no representation at these closed-door meetings.

Once the details leaked from the secret negotiations, public power utilities learned of an agreement between the plaintiffs and the federal government. This agreement fails to protect BPA and exposes its customers to new costs, operational changes, and more lawsuits and claims, translating into billions of dollars in new expenses—at the cost of ratepayers.

Disturbingly, this agreement could imperil a valuable resource critical to ensuring system reliability, meeting our carbon reduction goals, electrifying our economy and integrating new renewable resources.

We need your help to put some common sense and transparency in this process. We need elected leaders, such as Gov. Tina Kotek and Oregon’s congressional delegation, to stand up for our communities that depend on federal hydropower. If they don’t, the only certainty is the electricity we provide you will be less affordable and reliable.

Brad Wilson

President and CEO