WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) released the following statement regarding the privatization of Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) transmission assets:

“Selling off BPA’s transmission system and abandoning cost-based rates would raise electricity rates and throw sand in the gears of the Northwest economy. Northwest consumers already cover the full costs, with interest, of building and operating our region’s hydropower system. I will be working with all my Pacific Northwest colleagues to once again stop this bad idea in its tracks.”

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is a self-financed administration that markets hydropower generated at federally-owned dams. Ratepayers compensate the government, with interest, for Bonneville’s power and transmission systems. Several administrations, beginning with President Reagan, have proposed to sell the administration or raise electric rates to increase federal revenues. Congress has repeatedly rejected those proposals.