DeFazio: No deals to aid aluminum plants
POWER: Congressman says industry made "obscene profits" selling power.
The Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. -- U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio complained Thursday about profits the Northwest aluminum industry has made by reselling power.
Public meeting tonight
Alcoa Intalco Works will host a public meeting at 8 tonight at Mount Baker Theatre to discuss the power supply situation that threatens the company's future. Company and union officials will tell interested people what they can do to help influence federal officials on Intalco's behalf. Jim Frederick, Intalco general manager, and Lloyd Jones, president of U.S. smelting operations for Alcoa Inc., are scheduled to speak, along with union officials.
The aluminum industry has made $1.4 billion this year by remarketing low-cost power they receive from the Bonneville Power Administration, DeFazio said.
"The region's aluminum companies are making obscene profits reselling their BPA power," DeFazio said at a news conference here.
The Oregon Democrat met with officials from five Oregon utility companies who agreed that Bonneville, the federal power marketing agency based in Portland, Ore., should deny any preferential treatment to the aluminum industry, also known as the direct service industry because it draws power directly from BPA hydroelectric dams.
"We lend support to efforts to give no special deals to the direct service industry," said Rick Crinklaw, general manager of the Lane Electric Cooperative.
Under power contracts negotiated in 1995, direct service industries had the option to resell the inexpensive power they buy from Bonneville on the open market. Many smelters shut down their operations and laid off workers when wholesale energy prices began to spike, and then resold their power.
Bonneville's contracts with the DSIs expire in October.
Because of soaring prices for electricity and the Northwest's drought, Bonneville has recommended that the aluminum smelters shut down for two years to save power.