We’re already reeling from losses in our portfolios and retirement plans. We’ve been wounded by job cuts, whether we’re among the unemployed or just have friends or loved ones who are. We’re wary of the next piece of bad economic news. And in Snohomish County, we’re already paying the highest electricity rates in the state.
So it was heartening to hear Snohomish County PUD general manager Ed Hansen say that he’ll be telling the Bonneville Power Administration that we just can’t take another rate increase.
BPA says its budget could be as much as $1 billion short over the next five years, and that a 38 percent hike in wholesale power rates is one option for covering the shortfall. That could translate into a 10 percent rate increase for PUD customers, on top of last year’s devastating hikes of more than 50 percent.
Ratepayers, both families and businesses, are saying "enough, already." Jacking rates again would send another frosty shiver through the local economy, risking an even longer wait for recovery.
Hansen is right to tell BPA to look internally to cut costs, as the PUD itself must do. It’s an exercise all too familiar of late to Snohomish County families and businesses, many of whom are getting very creative. We should expect no less from our public power suppliers.
BPA is asking for your input on what it should do, and we’d love to see citizens take that invitation seriously. As the citizens’ representative on power issues, the PUD also must push hard to see that BPA is looking hard at every opportunity to avoid any more rate increases.
PUD officials are to be commended for their doggedness in seeking redress from that icon of corporate greed, Enron — efforts that have led to a belated investigation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission of alleged shenanigans by Enron and other energy traders that forced prices into the stratosphere. We hope they’ll be as tireless in fighting to protect their customers from further rate hikes. Snohomish County has had enough bad news.
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