|
 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
|
Sen. Shirley Stull
Room S209
State Capitol
Salem, OR 97310
|
Sen. Gene Derfler
1408 34th St. NW
Salem, OR 97304
senate.republican@state.or.us
|
|
Rep. Tom Whelan
5314 Eastlake Ct. SE
Salem, OR 97306
whelan.rep@state.or.us
|
Rep. Bryan Johnston
2218 Treemont Ct. S
Salem, OR 97302 president@willamette.edu
|
Rep. Peter Courtney
2925 Island Dr. NE
Salem, OR 97303
courtney.rep@state.or.us
|
TOP
|
