Like challenging this agency will help

I am comforted and warmed by the announcement from Sen. Maria Cantwell that she will soon introduce legislation that she hopes will force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to control electric energy wholesale prices. Hold on, Don Quixote, the windmills are beginning to quiver and quake. A recent Herald editorial on the topic concluded, “If a regulatory agency can’t take action against … manipulation … something’s wrong.”

W contracts future energy from BPA. W sells to X, X to Y, Y to W, W to Z. Z sells to Snohomish County PUD, which will take delivery of 80 percent of its energy requirement from BPA (but doesn’t Morgan Stanley have a delivery contract for $200 million?). Each sale or re-sale makes a “reasonable” profit and raises the average cost of energy and justifies the next pricing level – pretty neat, and nothing even needs to be delivered.

PUD is a public utility and is required by law to recover costs from ratepayers – a veritable blank check without a watchdog named FERC. Ponzi, the financial pyramid builder, was an amateur. FERC’s next scheme is to establish Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO) to “control efficient flow of energy and minimize costs.”

I am warmed and comforted that Sen. Cantwell, PUD General Manager Ed Hansen, my elected PUD commissioners and their $75,000 analysts are uniting to challenge BPA and FERC. I am also very naive!

Brier