By Jennifer Langston
Herald Writer
Two energy companies are suing the Snohomish County PUD to keep the utility from telling the public how much it’s paying them for electricity.
American Electric Power Service Corporation and Enron Power Marketing will argue in state superior court today that releasing the information would violate laws protecting the companies’ trade secrets.
But a former PUD employee who asked for the information under the state’s public records act says he thinks the utility should have to tell customers how it’s spending their money.
"There should be few, if any, secrets between the utility and the people who should own it," said David Aldrich, a former PUD analyst whose job was eliminated several years ago. "I think in particular since the PUD has raised rates … that PUD customers are entitled to know why."
Aldrich asked the PUD to release details of long-term contracts it signed with four different companies early this year when energy prices were skyrocketing.
The PUD has disclosed it paid an average of $110 per megawatt for the energy — deals that seemed good at a time when power prices on the open market were bouncing between $200 and $400 a megawatt.
Since then, prices have fallen back to more normal levels of around $30 a megawatt. That means the utility is now locked into long-term contracts requiring them to pay almost four times more than they could buy power for today.
American Electric Power Service Corporation and Enron Power Marketing asked a judge Wednesday to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the PUD from releasing details of the contracts, including exact prices that they’re charging.
The power companies argue in court documents that the formulas and research they used to make offers to the PUD are unique and covered by law designed to protect trade secrets.
They say other companies in the competitive energy market could use the information to undercut them in the future.
The companies say that if they’re required to release sensitive information because of disclosure laws that apply to public utilities such as the PUD, they won’t want to do business with them in the future.
"Companies…would be discouraged from providing public utility districts with favorable rates knowing that the rates and pricing information … could be used to competitive disadvantage," the companies argue. "This sharp disincentive would ultimately harm consumers."
The PUD has taken a neutral position on whether the information should be released. That’s really up to a judge to decide, said Don Cohen, an attorney with Gordon, Thomas and Honeywell in Seattle who is representing the PUD.
Chip Holcomb, senior counsel with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, said there are important reasons to protect competitive information in public contracts from being disclosed.
On the other hand, he said he didn’t think a judge would let an agency keep basic information like the price of a government contract secret.
A similar case that the state was involved in arose when a company sought to obtain details of a state contract that a competitor had won, Holcomb said.
In that case the judge ruled that much of the information in the contract and the formulas used to arrive at the price were trade secrets and didn’t have to be released to the public.
But the judge said the agency did have to reveal how much it was paying the company, he said.
"Ordinarily you can give the bottom line without disclosing how you got there," Holcomb said. "I would be surprised if any judge would say that a government agency is entitled to withhold the amount of money it is spending."
Aldrich says he’s not interested in the special formulas the companies used to calculate their prices — he just wants to know how much the utility is shelling out.
"The price that the PUD is paying for power…should be a matter of public information because it bears directly on how much customers are being required to pay," he said.
You can call Herald Writer Jennifer Langston at 425-339-3452
or send e-mail to langston@heraldnet.com.
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