Trump's Bonneville Power Administration selloff is in doubt
EVERETT The U.S. Department of Energy has signaled it could drop plans to sell off major parts of the Pacific Northwests hydroelectric system, a scenario that utilities and customers feared would push rates higher.
A bipartisan group in Congress has made it clear that it intends to stop any attempt to privatize the Bonneville Power Administration, an idea that President Donald Trump has floated in yearly budget proposals. The Snohomish County Public Utility District buys about 80 percent of its electricity from the BPA, which was created by the federal government in the 1930s.
I have made it clear to the Trump Administration that it would be a huge mistake to sell off or privatize portions of the BPA, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said Thursday, in a statement. The notion that we would go along with the administrations proposal to enrich investors at the expense of families and businesses in our state is a complete non-starter.
Washingtons other U.S. senator, Maria Cantwell, called access to cheap hydropower the backbone of our economy for decades and said selling the transmission infrastructure would be a bad idea.
On Thursday, a Senate committee approved an energy and water bill that would deny any money for divesting the federal government of Bonneville Power assets. It also applies to the three other power marketing administrations around the country. It passed 30-1 and is headed to the full Senate for a vote.
Unloading the Pacific Northwests major power purveyor is one of thousands of ideas in the annual budget the Trump administration released in February. The president and his allies have made a general push to privatize public infrastructure in a belief that free markets would perform more efficiently.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/plans-to-sell-parts-of-bonneville-power-administration-in-doubt/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=681ac269ba-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-681ac269ba-228635337
That in a nutshell is the Trump infrastructure plan. Sell off our public infrastructure to private companies who will charge us even more.