02.16.06

After Meeting with Energy Secretary, Cantwell Vows to Stop Backdoor Electricity Rate Hike

Senator: I will fight this ill-considered plan every step of the way

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a member of the Senate Energy Committee, released the following statement following Thursday’s meeting with Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. At the meeting, Cantwell and other Pacific Northwest senators confronted Bodman about the Bush Administration’s plan to raise Northwest electricity rates:

“The administration seems determined to push ahead with this underhanded proposal at the expense of Northwest families, businesses, and jobs,” said Cantwell. “Well, I’m just at determined to fight it every step of the way. I will do everything I can to protect our economy, control record energy costs, and stop this administration from forcing a rate hike past the objections of every member of the Northwest Senate delegation. I’ve heard from businesses, PUD managers, and thousands of citizens. With energy costs still on the rise, this is the wrong policy at the wrong time.”

Cantwell is working with all eight Pacific Northwest senators in bipartisan opposition to the proposal, which would unravel the Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) system of cost based rates, raising Northwest electricity costs by almost $1 billion. The administration’s plan would reverse a decades-old BPA policy of using revenue from surplus power sales to lower electricity rates for consumers in the Northwest.

On Tuesday, Cantwell joined other senators for a meeting at the White House where she made clear her opposition to the president’s plan. Cantwell is also calling on the citizens of Washington and the entire Northwest to join her in signing a petition to demand an end to the plan to unravel BPA’s cost-based rates. The petition is posted on Cantwell’s website. Over 5,000 citizens have signed the petition since its launch a few days ago.

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