BPA may cut off aluminum smelters Agency says power needed elsewhere
Tuesday, April 10, 2001
By PAUL NYHAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
The Northwest aluminum industry suffered another blow yesterday when the Bonneville Power Administration proposed cutting off aluminum smelters for up to two years.
Aluminum manufacturers throughout Washington, Oregon and Montana were already slowing or halting smelter operations because of soaring energy costs. Kaiser Aluminum has shut down smelters in Tacoma and Spokane.
Bonneville Power Administration acting Administrator Stephen Wright yesterday asked aluminum companies to stop using BPA power for up to two years. The 10 aluminum smelters still operating in the Northwest consume about 1,500 megawatts of power -- more than enough electricity to light the entire city of Seattle -- and Bonneville can produce only 8,000 megawatts.
"It is our expectation that the companies would not be able to operate given a potential tripling of our rates anyway," Wright said.
Kaiser will discuss extending its shutdown, said Kaiser spokesman Scott Lamb. New contracts between Bonneville and aluminum manufacturers take effect Oct. 1.
"We will try to reach an agreement about how and for what duration curtailment will occur," Lamb said. "They seem to have singled the industry out. We are not entirely sure that is a balanced approach."
But Wright said talks had just begun.
"I wouldn't say they're happy about it. No one has agreed at this point. We have just begun the discussion," Wright said.
Wright also encouraged the aluminum industry to sever its BPA supply completely after 2006.
A prolonged shutdown threatens more than Northwest smelters. It raises fresh concerns for thousands of aluminum workers throughout Washington, Oregon and Montana.
Wright proposed "certain limited compensation" to companies and employees, but at least one union leader is concerned about the extent of that the support and the length of the shutdown.
"Limited is a term that makes me a little nervous," said David Foster, director of United Steelworker of America District 11, which represents workers at eight of the 10 Northwest smelters.
The shutdown would reach beyond the 7,500 smelter workers to tens of thousands of workers at suppliers and support companies, said Joel Simpson, general manager the Industrial Fabrication unit of The Coeur d'Alene Co.
Meanwhile, some aluminum manufacturers are trying to adjust. A manufacturer in Goldendale and The Dalles, Ore., is developing a natural-gas-fired combustion turbine to fire up its smelters. Kaiser is also looking at alternative energy sources, but hasn't settled on a new source, Lamb said.