Bush Bonnevill Plan gets Booed

The Bush Administration plan to require the federally-owned Bonneville power plant to sell electricity at market rates is being derided:

Northwest lawmakers said Wednesday they have blocked a Bush administration plan to force the Bonneville Power Administration and other federal power suppliers to sell electricity at market rates.

Lawmakers from both parties had complained that the plan could boost energy prices in the region by as much 20 percent and cost Pacific Northwest ratepayers $1.3 billion.

Besides the Portland, Ore.-based BPA, which supplies power to four states in the Pacific Northwest, the plan also would affect three regional agencies that supply power to dozens of states in the South and West: the Colorado-based Western Area Power Administration; Georgia-based Southeastern Power Administration; and Oklahoma-based Southwestern Power Administration.

California regularly imports electricity from the Northwest and could be impacted by this move as well.