I read the March 24 guest editorial by the PUD commissioners with amazement and disgust (“Today’s energy market more complex”). They claim that:
1. Their role “has changed to reflect the times,” meaning that all they want to do is set policy and “advocate for constituents” with other units of government. Who told them they could abandon the role of fiscal oversight? They should not be expected to do line item audits of every contract, but there is simply no excuse for their failure to know what contracts PUD was entering into, what they would be getting, and at what cost.
2. That “even if every dollar in the Akiyoshi contract was totally wasted … there would be no discernable effect on PUD rates.” Oh? And just what would they have been doing with all that extra money? How much other money is just lying around or being wasted instead of being used to offset the costs they are paying for power?
3. They state, “The details about our current power portfolio and the effect of BPA policies and deregulation are hard to fathom.” I resent the patronizing implication that we customers are too stupid to understand today’s energy markets.
Well I have a message for the PUD commissioners: we understand more than you give us credit for. Stop writing self-serving editorials claiming to know what we want, and start listening for a change. We do understand about BPA and Enron. We do understand that energy costs have risen and that it is a volatile market. And what’s more, we do understand that you have been doing only part of the job you are supposed to do. As a consequence of your failure to provide fiscal oversight, many people in this county have spent a cold and miserable winter wondering how they will ever pay their power bills.
The most likely reason that PUD is “one of only two utilities in the state that has been able to lower rates” is that the others didn’t gouge their customers to begin with.
Stanwood
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