The Honorable Richard Pombo
Chairman, Committee on Resources
U.S. House of Representatives
1324 Longworth HOB
Washington, D.C.  20515

Dear Chairman Pombo:

Northwest RiverPartners is a non-profit association representing a consortium of river users in the Pacific Northwest including agricultural interests, utilities, businesses, and ports.  Our 100-plus members are dramatically affected by current efforts in the region to recover listed endangered salmon and steelhead, through power rates and impacts to river uses.  The membership is committed to achieving a balance between preserving the multiple uses of the Columbia and Snake Rivers for a sound economy, and efficient, cost-effective salmon and steelhead protection and recovery. 

We support H.R. 4857, the Endangered Species Compliance and Transparency Act of 2006.  We thank Representative Cathy McMorris and the bill’s cosponsors for bringing this legislation forward.  H.R. 4857 is good public policy and we urge members of the Committee to support it.  Requiring federal power marketing agencies to provide information to their wholesale utility customers on both direct and indirect costs of Endangered Species Act compliance will create better understanding and, ultimately, better accountability of those costs and how they are incurred. 

More information and knowledge about Endangered Species Act compliance costs will lead to better informed utilities, customers and the general public.  Northwest RiverPartners, in a public opinion survey conducted in May 2005 learned that nearly 60 percent of respondents were not even aware that ESA compliance costs were included in their power rates.  Of those who were aware, over 40 percent believed that less than 5 percent of their bills went to such compliance, when, in general the reality is that 15 to 20 percent of consumers’ retail bills in the Northwest go towards ESA compliance and specifically for listed salmon and steelhead.    

Utilities and their customers should have the opportunity to better understand the ongoing investment they are making towards recovering listed species.  Northwest consumers care deeply about our natural resources, particularly our fish and wildlife, and would appreciate knowing that they are doing their part to protect and recover these valued resources.  Their investments in ESA compliance are not minor.  BPA’s current program and measures to help recover listed salmon and steelhead is nearly $750 million – each year – and increasing.  In BPA’s current rate proceeding, fish and wildlife expenditures and foregone power revenues account for 30 percent of the costs that will be charged to regional utilities in the 2007-2009 period.  These costs deserve specific identification because they are of this magnitude, are subject to great volatility, and are driven by laws including the ESA and the Northwest Power Act not directly related to the actual costs of power production.  

More knowledge and information about fish and wildlife costs should only be construed as a positive development.  Electricity providers should have the opportunity to inform their customers about the compliance and recovery efforts they are funding. There should be “no surprises” about the magnitude of the investment being made now and in the future by regional electricity consumers through their rates to protect and recover endangered species.

Northwest RiverPartners believes that concerns over how the information might be used or construed are unwarranted.  This bill merely recognizes that the costs regional electricity consumers are incurring are formidable, and those most affected should be aware and informed of their contributions. If such knowledge helps to spark greater interest and discussion over what investments are being made and whether they are the best approach to provide the greatest benefits to the resources of concern, all the better.  That is why RiverPartners supports a science-based, cost-effective and comprehensive approach to salmon recovery.  Only such an approach, taking into account the effects of harvest, hatcheries and habitat quantity and condition, can result in the sustainable recovery of salmon in the Northwest.

H.R 4857 provides the opportunity for important and valuable information to be provided to regional electric utilities and consumers.  In light of that objective it is  irrelevant whether people believe the “right” amount is being spent in the region on fish and wildlife and ESA compliance.  The point of H.R. 4857 is to provide knowledge and information.  Those making these investments deserve no less and we urge you to support its passage.   

Sincerely,

Terry Flores
Executive Director