Reserve judgment on city-run electric utility | LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Published 1:35 pm Thursday, October 6, 2016

To the editor:

In his recent letter, Mr. Mullis asserts that it will not be cheap to get inexpensive Bonneville Power Administration power delivered to our island, since PSE will charge a hefty fee to move that power from Gorst to our island.

This is simply wrong. Bonneville will arrange with PSE to move the power to the island as it has already done for many other public utilities, and the cost of doing so will be spread to all of Bonneville’s 120 or so public utility customers.

Delivery of Bonneville power to our island will be less costly than what we currently pay PSE to deliver its power to the island.

He asserts that the hydro power that Bonneville will use to serve island loads has already been allocated to someone else. Again, this is simply wrong. The power Bonneville will use to serve the island has not been allocated to anyone else, but in fact has been reserved for use by new public utility customers of Bonneville, of which the island may be one. This power is currently being sold on the open market, mostly to California. Retrieving that power from California to serve island loads is not a zero-sum game, but a net gain for the Pacific Northwest.

He further suggests that residential solar applications are causing the power industry to implode by destroying the economic model on which they are based. It is unclear what this assertion is based on, as there has been no news of electric utilities “imploding.” But even if this were the case, would it not be better to face an uncertain future with a small, nimble electric utility responsive to its customers’ needs, rather than a vertically integrated, monopoly utility that is heavily invested in the coal-fired generation and must take its direction from a regulatory body in Olympia?

The residents of Bainbridge Island deserve the facts about whether or not a public utility is the right choice for the island, and judgment on that question should be reserved until those facts are available for all to review and evaluate.

JOHN HATHAWAY

Bainbridge Island