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 Meeting with
Elected Officials
Salem Electric participated in the National Rural
Electric Cooperative Association's annual Legislative Rally in Washington D.C.
President Jim Dyer and General Manager Bob Speckman
joined me in representing Salem Electric before our federal elected officials
in discussing the future of the Bonneville Power Administration and the current
state of federal legislation concerning power deregulation.
We were pleased to hear federal efforts on power
deregulation were deemed unlikely this year according to the congressional
offices we visited with.
As you will recall in earlier articles in this space
last year from various board members, the Oregon legislature consumed the
entire session on power deregulation only to reach impasse and no bills were
sent to either floor after exhaustive debate. That was good for those of us
served by consumer-owned utilities.
That is unlikely to be the case in the 1999 session
of the Oregon legislature. Advocates of open markets (i.e., Enron Corp. and
large industrial users) will renew legislative efforts next year at gutting
public power.
"...federal efforts on power
deregulations were deemed unlikely this year..."
The seventeen-member cooperatives of the Oregon
Rural Electric Cooperative Association (ORECA) have adopted principles that
ensure our ability to provide low-cost power and maintain our high level of
reliability with our owner/consumers.
ORECA has begun the process of educating our elected
officials to ensure that any legislation introduced protects our ability to
serve the membership and will not disadvantage small business and residential
consumers.
It should be noted that Enron Corporation, who
advocated the merits of deregulation and competition, has abandoned the
residential consumers in California and Massachusetts, only to cherry-pick the
large industrial users. You can guess who loses in those states.
Sara Baker-Sifford, ORECA's General Manager of eight
years, has announced her resignation with plans to move to the coast. Sandra
Flicker, ORECA's chief lobbyist, was appointed as interim General Manager.
Flicker comes to this position with probably the most extensive
experience on power deregulation, having led efforts to "go slow" and study the
effects of deregulation on consumers in our region.
--Jeff Anderson, Director
What Can You Do? Contact Your Legislators
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Sen. Shirley Stull
Room S209
State Capitol
Salem, OR 97310
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Sen. Gene Derfler
1408 34th St. NW
Salem, OR 97304
senate.republican@state.or.us
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Rep. Tom Whelan
5314 Eastlake Ct. SE
Salem, OR 97306
whelan.rep@state.or.us
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Rep. Bryan Johnston
2218 Treemont Ct. S
Salem, OR 97302 president@willamette.edu
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Rep. Peter Courtney
2925 Island Dr. NE
Salem, OR 97303
courtney.rep@state.or.us
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