S-855                 _______________________________________________

                                          SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 8005

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1987 Regular Session

By Senators Williams, Smitherman, Benitz, Owen, Stratton, Nelson, Tanner, Bauer, Rasmussen, Zimmerman, Saling and McCaslin

Read first time 1/26/87 and referred to Committee on Energy & Utilities.

TO THE HONORABLE RONALD REAGAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION:

          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 has served the people of the state of Washington for fifty years as a federal agency dedicated to providing clean, renewable electricity at the lowest possible cost to consumers; and

          WHEREAS, The ratepayers of the state of Washington, along with those in other Pacific Northwest states, are obligated to fully repay, with interest, approximately $8.8 billion invested by the federal treasury; and

          WHEREAS, The President has proposed in his 1988 federal budget that the federal government sell off the Bonneville Power Administration; and

          WHEREAS, The President also has proposed in his budget that the repayment of BPA's debt be accelerated, greatly increasing the yearly debt payments borne by ratepayers; and

          WHEREAS, The sale of BPA or accelerated debt repayment would provide only a small, short-term decrease in the federal budget deficit and could in the long term actually increase the federal deficit; and

          WHEREAS, The President made virtually identical proposals to sell BPA or accelerate its debt repayment in 1986, and these proposals were rejected by Congress; and

          WHEREAS, Congress also prohibited, in Public Law 99-349, the United States Department of Energy from spending money to pursue a BPA sale without specific Congressional authorization; and

          WHEREAS, Economic studies have shown that a sale or accelerated repayment could result in a BPA rate increase of 100 percent or more and cost ratepayers of this region as much as $16 billion; and

          WHEREAS, Ratepayers of the Bonneville Power Administration already have suffered from large rate increases and now are paying considerably more than BPA's cost of generating power, such that BPA is unable to sell all its electricity; and

          WHEREAS, The Senate and House of Representatives of the state of Washington are adamantly opposed to the sale or debt acceleration proposed by the President;

          NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the Congress of the United States again reject the short-sighted and erroneous proposal to sell the Bonneville Power Administration, or increase arbitrarily its debt obligation.

          BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, the Bonneville Power Administration, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.