(WASHINGTON, DC) -- The Trump administration’s proposal to
sell off the federal government’s utility assets has made it, once again, into
the budget proposal, and utility groups are already lining up to fight it.
The proposal calls for privatizing the transmission line
assets owned by the large Power Marketing Administrations like Bonneville in
the Northwest and the Southwestern Power Administration, which represents 7
percent of the nation’s total electricity production.
The two administrations sell some of the lowest cost
hydro-electric power in the world, and because of that have attracted high-tech
manufacturers and data center companies in places like Washington state. But
it’s not been clear why the Trump administration wants to privatize the
administrations’ utility lines.
Utility trade groups the American Public Power
Administration and National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association had
successfully beaten back the proposal in the past by pointing out to Congress
the harm privatizing the assets would cause for consumers who would see their
energy bills rise.
Sue Kelly, the APPA president, immediately called on
Congress “to reject these misguided proposals.” She said that the proposal
would “threaten” the ability of the power administrations to provide reliable
electricity to 1,200 public power utility systems and rural electric
cooperatives in 33 states.
She said the power administrations function as large public
corporations, and do not require taxpayer funding to operate, and provide
electricity based on cost of generating it.
The four administrations targeted by the Trump plan include
the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Bonneville Power Administration,
Southwestern Power Administration, and the Western Area Power Administration.
Kelly and the rural cooperatives successfully defeated the
plan as it appeared in the president’s two previous budgets by getting both
Democrats and Republicans to rail publicly against it and vow that it not see
the light of day.
