![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.cec.coop\/wp-content\/uploads\/markham1-1.jpg\")
Bipartisan political action is all but unheard of these days. Thankfully, that is not the case with two issues threatening to increase rural Oregonians\u2019 electricity costs.<\/p>\nBipartisan political action is all but unheard of these days. Thankfully, that is not the case with two issues threatening to increase rural Oregonians\u2019 electricity costs.<\/p>\n
One issue originates at the federal level. State actions prompt the other. Both are linked by their potential to drive up the cost of the electricity the Bonneville Power Administration provides Oregon\u2019s elec\u00adtric co\u00adops\u2014including Central Electric. Elected officials from both parties have stepped up in opposition.<\/p>\n
Detailed on pages 4 and 5, a Trump administration budget proposal would sell BPA\u2019s transmission system, along with that of two other federal power marketing administrations. Twenty-\u00adone U.S. senators signed a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry opposing the proposal and touting its inconsistency with the president\u2019s budgetary objectives.<\/p>\n
\u201cFederal power marketing is one of the few federal programs that not only fully pays its way, but actually provides benefits to the federal government\u2019s balance sheet,\u201d wrote the 14 Democrats\u2014including Oregon\u2019s Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley\u2014 and seven Republicans.<\/p>\n
The 15 members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon and Washington echoed that position in their letter to Perry and the U.S. Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney. Oregon\u2019s sole Republican Congressman, Greg Walden, joined Democratic representa\u00adtives Suzanne Bonamici, Kurt Schrader, Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio, and Washington\u2019s six Democrats and four Republicans to urge the administration to work with the delegation to protect BPA.<\/p>\n
A group of Oregon legislators put aside party considerations to urge Gov. Kate Brown to take a more collaborative stance when tackling Columbia River salmon restoration challenges. Prompted by a judge\u2019s ruling, in the spring of 2018 there will be an expensive spill test at the river system\u2019s federal dams. It will increase fish migration stream flows above previously agreed\u00ad upon levels and decrease power production\u2014an action that may harm fish by increasing their exposure to dissolved gasses produced by water turbulence.<\/p>\n
Oregon is a party to the lawsuit that triggered the ruling. It challenges a recov\u00adery plan formed by consensus among
\nthe federal agencies responsible for river operations, the other Northwest states and most of the region\u2019s tribes. Oregon has consistently opposed the outcomes of this collaborative process.<\/p>\n
A letter to the governor by Rep. Sherrie Sprenger of Salem was co\u00adsigned by five Democratic representatives and 22 of her fellow Republicans, including Central Oregon representatives Knute Buehler, Gene Whisnant and Mike McLane. The letter urges the governor to consider the economic and environmental impacts of a test that each year is estimated to cost BPA customers $40 million and increase car\u00adbon emissions 840,000 metric tons.<\/p>\n
I am encouraged to see elected officials put partisanship aside and work together to protect the interests of those they serve.<\/p>\n
Respectfully,<\/p>\n
Dave Markham Bipartisan political action is all but unheard of these days. Thankfully, that is not the case with two issues threatening to increase rural Oregonians\u2019 electricity costs. One issue originates at the federal level. State actions prompt the other. Both are linked by their potential to drive up the cost of the electricity the Bonneville Power […]\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-05-13 03:49:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPresident and CEO<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"