Aluminum support questioned
This story was published 5/22/2001
By Chris Mulick
Herald Olympia Bureau
OLYMPIA -- The political support for aluminum companies seeking better contract offerings from the Bonneville Power Administration has broadened.
The number of state lawmakers who have signed a letter sent on behalf of the industry is almost twice the number earlier believed. The 90 lawmakers who have asked for a better deal for aluminum companies make up more than half the Legislature.
But some of those lawmakers are having second thoughts because what they are asking for could mean higher rates for customers of public utilities.
"I wish I hadn't signed this," said Walla Walla Sen. Mike Hewitt, referring to the letter that was sent to acting BPA Administrator Steve Wright and U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., in April. "That's the hard part of this job, finding out who is getting hurt here. You just forget to do those things."
Already, another letter is in the works in an attempt to clarify what some lawmakers say they meant.
"If push comes to shove, there's no question what side I'm going to be on," said Kennewick Sen. Pat Hale, who called the letter fiasco "a real good lesson."
She added, "If we can help the aluminum industry, I hope we can do that, but not at the expense of others."
Though state legislators have tried to appear poised to lead the region out of the darkness of the energy crisis this session, many have clearly struggled to understand some of the core issues complicating the rapidly changing industry. Analysts agree lawmakers' calls for wholesale power price caps, streamlined permitting processes for new generating plants and tax breaks for power plant developers would do little to ease the crisis.
The letters to Bonneville and Cantwell, signed by six out of every 10 legislators, are another illustration. Several dozen of those who signed them represent districts that are not home to any of Bonneville's so-called
direct- service industries but are served, at least in part, by public utilities.
That includes Hale and Richland Rep. Shirley Hankins of the 8th District and the 16th District's Hewitt and Walla Walla Rep. Dave Mastin.
Tri-City utilities were upset earlier after learning Mastin and Hankins were among 48 House Republicans who signed the letter to Wright, who is expected to wrap up aluminum company contract negotiations by the end of June.
But it was revealed late last week that Hale, Hewitt and 40 others also had signed other copies of the same letter, and that all of them also had been forwarded to Cantwell.
"That's just incredible," said Chuck Dawsey, manager of the Benton Rural Electric Association.
Six of eight Northwest U.S. senators have signed letters to Bonneville supporting public power. Cantwell has not weighed in on the issue yet.
In the U.S. House, Rep. George Nethercutt said last week that public utility ratepayers should share the pain of the energy crisis to keep the struggling aluminum industry afloat.
And Pasco Rep. Doc Hastings, who has a strong mix of public power and aluminum jobs in his congressional district, said Monday that he's not taking sides on the issue.
Washington Gov. Gary Locke hasn't entered the fray, either, but adviser Dave Danner said Monday that the governor's staffers are researching the potential effects of various proposals being discussed.
All the while, both sides of what has turned into a public relations campaign are asking for all the political endorsements they can get. Both have produced dueling projections for an economic Armageddon should they not get their way and are proliferating their messages through news releases and advertising.
The fundamental problem driving the debate is this: Bonneville has agreed to provide 11,000 megawatts of power to its customers when its new contracts kick in Oct. 1, but it has only 8,000 megawatts available to sell.
The federal power marketer will have to make up the difference by buying additional power off the market, which could more than double retail electric rates to customers of public utilities, such as those serving the Tri-Cities.
The aluminum companies, which unlike public utilities have no legal claim to Bonneville power, have contracts for 1,500 megawatts. The BPA is offering to pay their workers' salaries plus tax benefits to their communities if the companies shut down for two years. So far, only one company has agreed.
The others are advocating a "conservation incentive" or "tiered" rate approach in which all BPA customers would get 75 percent of their power at the cheap cost of production and be forced to pay the sky-high market price for the rest. That would encourage all electricity consumers to conserve, aluminum backers argue.
Public power advocates say the aluminum companies could easily shut down every fourth pot line, but utilities can't simply darken every fourth street block.
Though some lawmakers say they thought they were only encouraging Bonneville to "include the entire Pacific Northwest in a broad discussion on the region's energy future," the letter they signed called the tiered rate plan a "fairer approach" than the deals BPA is offering.
"I don't even know anything about that," Hale said of the tiered approach.
Mastin said the letter was being circulated near key legislative deadlines for getting bills passed, the most hectic time during the session.
"I should have read it closer than I did," he said. "I didn't think about the implications. Some of us went over it pretty quickly."
That has left some to wonder why legislators haven't consulted others before signing such letters.
"For the life of me, I don't understand why they don't call," Dawsey said. "I'll give them the benefit of the doubt they'll do the right thing if they're up to speed. In this particular case they're just not."