This is as complex of issue as any that face salmon recovery in the northwest. I have been in the power generation industry for over 20 years and the present situation is without parallel.

Cohoangler. You talk of passing the cost of spot market power on to consumer. I agree. Spot market power right now is between $200 and $500 per megawatt or $2-$5 a kilowatt and in most of Western Washington you are currently paying $.04-.08 per kw. so just move the decimal point on your bill to the right one place. If your current bill is $40 a month then it would be 400. OUCH

Do get me wrong on this. I would love to see all the dams breached. It would be great for the salmon. On the other hand if your residential power bill went up that much just imagine what your local Albertsons light bill would look like. So how much are we willing to pay for a gallon of milk or loaf of bread. How many businesses would survive such an increase. To me it is scary.

The summer forcast for power is bleak. Yes it is true that a large portion of the summer peak load is airconditioning but that is true of everywhere not just California.

The BPA is being required to sell power to Calif by the Federal Gov. Clinton started it and Bush has continued it.

Calif probably will never pay for the power it is getting or at least not what they agreed to pay for it.

It is true that Calif got itself into this jam all by themselves. Lack of planning,lots of growth, refusal to allow more power plants to be built in their state (build them somewhere else, not in our back yard)

It is very complicated but the long and short of it is this.

Columbia River Salmon and Steelhead are going to be converted into electricity and shipped to California or the economy will meltdown.

That is how the powers that be will see this situation.

Quess who wins.

About the only solution that I can see is rain and lots of it. Pray for rain

Thought you should all know.


Desertdog


[This message has been edited by Desertdog (edited 02-16-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Desertdog (edited 02-16-2001).]