The agency has already asked FERC to permit the use of a cost recovery adjustment clause that will raise rates to its customers 15 percent, if not more. Those utilities, mostly cooperatives, public utility districts and municipalities, generally cut that percentage in half when they pass it along to ratepayers. By signing contracts with Bonneville early, they are not subject to whatever increases the agency imposes until Oct. 1, 2006. She praised the initiative shown so far by Washington Gov. Gary Locke and his Oregon counterpart, John Kitzhaber, who with Energy Secretary Richardson will host an energy summit this week. Johansen said she hopes the search for a solution to the West's energy woes does not dissolve into a political fight between California and Northwest officials vying for federal hydropower.
Legislative action is also probable.
The Northwest Energy Coalition, for one, plans to push for a package that would require utilities to set aside at least 3 percent of revenues for conservation and related purposes. The conservation group also backs state assistance to poor households overwhelmed by utility bills, and some generation, preferably from renewable sources like wind. Utility dedication to conservation has slipped badly since a peak in 1993, said interim policy director Marc Sullivan. State Rep. Larry Crouse, R-Spokane, has similar objectives, but a different approach. Don Badley, the Northwest Power Pool operations manager who spearheaded efforts to pilot the region through the recent shortages, said he's given up trying to estimate when the crisis will pass.