6.3 ERMUSR 03-13-2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ir 4,8 IVIIVIP1J Position Statement Protecting the Interests of WAPA Customers • The Administration's proposals to sell off PMA transmission assets and require PMA power to be sold at market rates should be rejected. • Selling off PMA transmission assets would provide a one-time infusion - -- of$9.5 billion out of a projected $4.5 -- � .� . ' 7 � �� trillion budget and lead to decades of higher transmission rates for dozens '�- of small municipal utilities in western Minnesota. _ • Abandoning the long-standing policy of cost-base rates and moving ' ' to market-based rates would result in . a $1.9 billion rate increase for PMA customers. The Oahe Dam powerplant,just north of Pierre,South Dakota,provides Background electricity for much of western Minnesota and the north-central United States. The four federal power marketing Along with power,the project provides flood control,irrigation and navigation administrations (PMAs) deliver benefits estimated by the Corps of Engineers at$150 million per year. reliable, cost-based hydroelectric power to various regions of the 200,000 people in the western part of the state. United States. Approximately 1,200 public power The relationship between WAPA and most of the systems and rural electric cooperatives throughout Minnesota municipal utilities it serves has been in the country buy low-cost, zero-emissions place since the 1950s. hydropower from the PMAs that market this power from the federal multi-purpose dams. The Administration's Budget Proposals Unfortunately, the Administration's FY 2019 The Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) budget seeks to disrupt this long-standing is the PMA that delivers power to a 15-state relationship with two troubling proposals. region of the central and western United States that also includes the western third of Minnesota. First, the Administration proposes privatizing WAPA's 17,000-mile transmission system carries WAPA, Southwestern Power Administration and electricity from 55 hydropower plants operated by the Bonneville Power Administration transmission the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps assets, as well as The Tennessee Valley Authority. of Engineers and the International Boundary and The budget estimates that: Water Commission. Minnesota is served by WAPA's Upper Great Plains Region office which provides • Selling Western Area Power Administration's electricity from the seven dams of the Pick-Sloan transmission assets will raise $580 million; Missouri River Program established by Congress in • Selling Southwestern Power Administration 1944. transmission assets will raise $15 million; • Selling Bonneville Power Administration WAPA is critical to Minnesota municipal utilities, transmission assets will raise $5.193 billion; and providing about one third of the wholesale power • Selling Tennessee Valley Authority transmission needs of 47 public power systems serving over assets will raise $3.671 billion. 2018 Federal Position Statements/8 240