TO ELLIOT MAINZER, BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION LEAD ADMINISTRATOR AND TO THE SECRETARY OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY:

We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

WHEREAS, The Bonneville Power Administration operates and maintains over fifteen thousand circuit miles of transmission line and interties, across the western United States, including Washington state; and

WHEREAS, The Bonneville Power Administration has recognized its role in encouraging the development of renewable resources within the Pacific Northwest; and

WHEREAS, The Eastern Intertie segment of the Montana Intertie, which stretches across the state of Montana and delivers power into the state of Washington, was originally built and paid for in part by Washington utilities to provide transmission services for coal-fired generating facilities located in southeastern Montana; and

WHEREAS, The Eastern Intertie also can and does provide transmission services for renewable energy resources that are vital to the decarbonization of the electric sector and the energy independence of the Pacific Northwest; and

WHEREAS, There is an existing one hundred eighty-four megawatts of unsubscribed transmission capacity in the Eastern Intertie, which is expected to grow in the next five years; and

WHEREAS, The closure of Colstrip Units 1 and 2 by 2022 will further free up transmission capacity for new or expanded clean and renewable energy resources from Montana into Washington state, thereby providing access to resources that can help Washington meet its renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction goals; and

WHEREAS, Public utilities would transmit energy between many existing and proposed renewable energy resources and the Bonneville Power Administration's Eastern Intertie; and

WHEREAS, The economic health of the state of Montana directly impacts the economic well-being of the state of Washington; and

WHEREAS, The existing transmission rate known as the Montana Intertie Rate charged by the Bonneville Power Administration is a barrier to new investment in energy generation resources in Montana; and

WHEREAS, The transmission rate is only applied to one segment of less than one hundred miles out of a fifteen thousand mile system, in an area that is in the most need of new energy resources investment; and

WHEREAS, Reduction or elimination of transmission costs will promote the development of new energy and capacity resources in an area of Montana that is experiencing losses in energy and capacity resources; and

WHEREAS, Encouraging full subscription of the Eastern Intertie will reduce the transmission rates paid by Washington utilities and their ratepayers;

NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the Bonneville Power Administration consider a rate design for the Eastern Intertie that eliminates or reduces the Montana Intertie Rate.

BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to Elliot Mainzer, Bonneville Power Administration Lead Administrator and the Secretary of the United States Department of Energy.

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