5.7. ERMUSR 03-13-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

'Manna Position Statement • Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association Protecting the Interests of WAPA Customers Background The four federal power marketing administrations (PMAs) deliver _ reliable, cost- ` based hydroelec- tric power to vari- tea...- ous regions of the - United States. „ Approximately 1,200 public power systems and rural elec- tric cooperatives ~ —; throughout the country buy low- cost, zero-emis- sions hydropower 1d from the PMAs that market this power from the federal multi- 4 � purpose dams. The Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) Congressional Action is the PMA that delivers power to a 15 state region Every few years, various interests and agencies of the central and western United States that also Propose to use WAPA and the other PMAs for pur- includes the western third of Minnesota. WAPA's poses that depart from the original, vital goals of 17,000-mile transmission system carries electricity the federal power marketing program. While well- from 55 hydropower plants operated by the Bureau intended, these proposals invariably come from in- of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers terests that undervalue the vital and enduring role federal power plays in the communities it serves. and the International Boundary and Water Com- mission. Minnesota is served by WAPA's Upper During the last administration, the Office of Man- Great Plains Region office which provides electric- agement and Budget (OMB) recycled a number of ity from the seven dams of the Pick-Sloan Missouri proposals (over the course of several years) that River Program established by Congress in 1944. were soundly rejected: reallocation of Pick-Sloan irrigation costs to power customers; an adminis- WAPA is critical to Minnesota municipal utilities, trative increase in the interest paid on new PMA providing about one third of the wholesale power investments; and the requirement that PMAs sell needs of 48 public power systems serving over power at market rates. 200,000 people in the western part of the state. 6/2013 Federal Position Statements