my address is:

12404 S.E. Blaine Dr.
Clackamas, OR 97015

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Brendan Boyle  [mailto:brendanb@amerexenergy.com] 
Sent:	Tuesday, May 01, 2001 1:35 PM
To:	Mike.Swerzbin@enron.com
Subject:	River's Power Aids California and Enriches the Northwest


 
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							        [IMAGE]  search [IMAGE]  [IMAGE] Today's NewsPast 2  WeeksPast 30 DaysPast 90 DaysPast  YearSince 1996   [IMAGE] << File: top.gif >> [IMAGE]   Go to Advanced  Search << File: NytArticleHeader.gif >>   [IMAGE] [IMAGE] Welcome, betterthanworse << File: gn_home.gif >>    Sign Up for  Newsletters << File: gn_classifieds.gif >>   |  Log Out << File: gn_news.gif >>              [IMAGE]        [IMAGE] 	
		[IMAGE]	  E-Mail This Article << File: gn_opinion.gif >>  Printer-Friendly Format << File: gn_features.gif >>   Most E-Mailed Articles << File: reale86.gif >>  Single-Page View << File: gn_destinations.gif >>  [IMAGE]  [IMAGE]  May 1, 2001     River's Power Aids California and Enriches the  Northwest  By BLAINE HARDEN               [IMAGE] Larry Davis for The New  York Times  Electricity generated by Rock Island  Dam in Chelan County, Wash., helped the county's public  utility earn a record $58.2 million in profits last  year.         Multimedia  [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE] chartThe  Price of Power Nationwide << File: gn_services.gif >>     [IMAGE] [IMAGE]      [IMAGE]      Related Articles  [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE] Plan on California  Energy Has No Shortage of Critics << File: gn_newspaper.gif >>  (April 27,  2001)  Board  Orders Limited Price Caps for California Power << File: profile.gif >>  (April 26,  2001)  California Official  Spars With U.S. on Power Policy << File: empty.gif >>  (April 10,  2001)  [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE]      [IMAGE]      Other Resources  [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE] Related Sites *  Interactive  Guide: California Power Woes - Associated Press << File: gs_search.gif >>     California I.S.O. << File: emailArticle2.gif >>     Energy Department: energy  statistics << File: printArticle2.gif >> [IMAGE]  [IMAGE] [IMAGE]      [IMAGE]       [IMAGE]       GEORGE, Wash. - Doing something nice for California has  never been a priority here in the Columbia River Basin, where  high-voltage power lines lope across irrigated fields of alfalfa,  potatoes and wheat.  Politicians from California, as farmers in this area will explain  at great length, have been scheming for decades to siphon off the  basin's cheap electricity and water.   Californians, however, have been noticeably less irritating as of  late. Having fouled up electricity deregulation six ways from  Sunday, they are skidding into the summer air-conditioning season  desperately short of power. In the last year, much of their  salvation has come from the Columbia River, whose monstrous dams are  the largest hydroelectricity machines in North America.  All along the river, from Portland, Ore., to British Columbia,  utility companies, aluminum makers and farmers have joined to help  save California - but at a staggering price. Charging whatever  California's dysfunctional power market will bear, people in this  narrow stretch of the Northwest have created a kind of Kuwait along  the Columbia.  With their record profits, some public utilities are wiring the  emptiness of Eastern Washington with fiber optics, buying diesel  generators to make still more power and paying Wall Street-style  wages to electricity traders - while making sure that their  electricity rates remain among the cheapest in North America. Just  north of the border in British Columbia, a state-owned utility  luxuriated in its California windfall by mailing out rebate checks  to 1.6 million customers.  Their good fortune, though, has come with a measure of  ambivalence and may well be short-lived. A severe drought is already  hurting farmers across the region. If it continues, utilities along  the river will have to buy power and may be punished by the same  market forces that gave them a windfall.  "This is not nice money," said Alice Parker, a retired farmer who  heads a group that promotes irrigation in the Columbia Basin. "It is  something that is offered to us not to use water so Californians can  run their air-conditioners."  Nice or not, a whole lot of money flooded into the Columbia  Basin.  North of here in sparsely populated Chelan County, a publicly  owned utility that has two dams on the Columbia made three times as  much money last year than it ever had before. With just 35,000 local  customers, the utility last year had a $58.2 million profit. It paid  its two top power traders $285,000 each, an astonishing income in a  county where per capita income is less than $25,000 a year. The  utility refuses to reveal the traders' names for fear their children  might be kidnapped.   The chief operating officer of Chelan County Public Utility  District acknowledged that increases in the cost of power were  "huge" and "obscene." But the executive, Charles J. Hosken, added,  "We would be imprudent if we did not maximize this market for our  customer owners."  Next door in equally sparse Grant County, a public utility that  also owns two dams on the Columbia has made even more money  maximizing the market. It had a record $88.8 million in profits last  year - more than double its best previous year.  Grant County Public Utility District, which has just 40,000  retail customers, is using its windfall to help build a $70 million  fiber optic network for local residents. It has also bought 20  diesel generators to guard against power shortages and, if possible,  exploit the power gold-rush. The utility estimates that those  generators could add $50 million to profits in the coming year.  Like Chelan, Grant is using its profits as a kind of drought  insurance to insulate its customers from high market prices for  electricity, when, as now, local needs exceed generating capacity in  the river. Power rates in Grant and Chelan Counties are about  one-fifth as much as in New York City.  Grant County's utility has rejected, for the time being, the idea  of giving a share of its profits to its customers.   "How would it look if Grant County gives away rebates while so  many people are paying more for electricity?" asked Lon Topaz,  director of resource management for the utility. "It would be lousy  politics."  An Upside-Down Economy    The second-worst drought on record in the Columbia River Basin  has combined with California's deregulation mess to further distort  the energy market. Drought has not only helped increase the price at  which electricity can be sold on the spot market - 10 to 20 times as  much as last year's price - it has strengthened a compelling  bottom-line rationale for conservation. Every megawatt not purchased  and used in the Northwest (often at locked-in, long- term prices  that are a fraction of the current market rate) can be sent south to  California. For many utilities, conservation spells local savings  and a long-distance bonanza.  As a result, a regional economy built on half a century of cheap  hydropower has been stood on its head. Irrigation farmers here are  being paid up to $440 an acre not to farm.   Similarly, aluminum companies are collecting about $1.7 billion  this year by not making aluminum. Companies like Alcoahave earned profits that delight Wall  Street, while keeping about 10,000 workers on their payroll, by  reselling hydropower that they bought in the mid-1990's under a  cheap long-term contract.  Even residential customers are being offered a chance to make a  few dollars from the power crunch. AvistaUtilities has announced that it will pay its  customers in Washington and Idaho 5 cents for every kilowatt they do  not use, if their consumption falls more than 5 percent below last  year's level.   For utilities in the Northwest, by far the largest profits from  California's electricity crisis have been secured in British  Columbia. A number of private American utilities have also benefited  from California's troubles.   BC Hydro, a utility owned by British Columbia with dams on the  Columbia and Peace Rivers, is the first corporation in the history  of the province to exceed $1 billion in profits, as measured in  Canadian currency ($712 million in United States currency).    Continued 1 | 2 << File: toshiba_emlart.gif >>  | Next>> << File: mostEmailed2.gif >>  Home << File: singlePage2.gif >>  | Back  to National << File: 01powe.1.jpg >>  | Search << File: multimedia.gif >>  | Help << File: chart.gif >>  Back to  Top << File: relatedArticles.gif >>    E-Mail This Article << File: otherResources.gif >>  Printer-Friendly Format << File: g.gif >>   Most E-Mailed Articles << File: serve?bfmid=23271248&siteid=35542624&bfpage=nytimes_6 >>  Single-Page View << File: NYTMenuTop.gif >>  [IMAGE]   					
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