The message light keeps glowing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It is time to respond to all the calls for help in addressing the massive exploitation of Western electric ratepayers, from Snohomish County southward through California.
The commission clearly knows there is a problem. It is responding to some of the concerns, although uncertainly and unevenly. At the current pace of progress, though, there will be a whole new round of concerns before FERC clears the existing backlog of issues.
The deregulation-obsessed commissioners are trying to add a whole new and costly element to the energy maze that is already cheating the Northwest of a significant economic asset: cheap, reliable power. Today, the chairman of the commission, Pat Wood, will be in Portland for what worried utilities say are to be discussions about proposed "regional transmission organizations."
FERC wants every area of the country to set up a new organization to facilitate the transmission of electricity in fulfilling the agency’s beloved vision of a deregulated market. Here’s a big surprise for all of us already paying for the botched experiments in deregulation: We will pay even more to establish the regional transmission organizations.
According to Snohomish County PUD estimates, the new Frankenstein controlling (or feeding off) the electricity lines would cost local residents and companies up to $18 million. If so, the cost might nail another 4 percent onto county residents’ bills.
As Mr. Wood has probably gathered, a rate hike would simply pile a new outrage on top of earlier ones that have cascaded on the public since the Western energy crisis of 2000-2001. He seemed to have been paying attention as Sen. Maria Cantwell expressed anger over the skyrocketing costs paid in Snohomish County because of the California power crisis and its manipulation by energy traders.
FERC, however, has yet to act in any effective manner for ratepayers here. It will likely be months, or longer, before the PUD gets anywhere with its complaints about long-term contracts signed in accord with the commission’s own advice. In a Senate hearing, Cantwell effectively demonstrated that, although Wood acknowledges that prices were unjust and the result of manipulation, the commission is letting the matter go through a legal process that may impose a standard higher than the clear language of federal law.
If so, the ratepayers will feel more of the same pain that PUD Commissioner Cynthia First outlined in sad detail for the senators. Too bad the FERC chairman couldn’t spare the time to hear First’s testimony (later in the hearing) about ratepayers whose higher bills take up the money needed to buy a senior prom dress for a daughter or what older citizens had planned to spend on food and medicine.
No matter how little or how much of the blame for the Western crisis rests with the state of California, FERC failed to effectively police deregulation. And it still hasn’t dealt with the region’s losses to the crisis, which amount to an estimated $1.7 billion in this state alone. Before designing regional transmission organizations or other experiments in deregulation, FERC should first clear the urgent messages requesting a measure of economic justice for the West.
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