Power to the People
Hello Everyone,
Columbia River Gorge
For this blog post we’re talking about power in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Specifically the chaos created by the Trump administration at the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and we’re putting out a call to action.
Why are we and why should you be concerned about what is happening at the BPA, a federal agency that most people living in the PNW have heard little or nothing from or about?
Considering how much power the BPA wields and revenue it generates it is quite impressive that the BPA has maintained such a low profile public image.
How was the BPA created, what does the BPA do and how does the BPA fund its work?
The BPA was created by the federal government 100 years ago to build and maintain the high voltage power lines from the first Columbia river dam (Bonneville) to end users in the region. In 1974 the federal government made BPA a publicly owned self funded federal agency. In 2022 BPA generated $4.72 billion in operating revenue. The BPA generates its operating revenue by marketing, transmitting and selling wholesale electricity from the now 31 federal dams on the Columbia River to eight western states (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah and California) and Canada. BPA has safely, reliably and relatively cheaply delivered hydroelectric power to end users (rate payers) of the Pacific Northwest through what has now become 15,000 miles of high voltage line controlled by 261 substations.
Why are we and why should you be concerned about what is happening at the BPA?
Well, power (electricity) is power (control over). For 100 years the BPA has safely, reliably, relatively cheaply, with little or no drama or crisis through natural disaster, capacity expansion and modernization delivered power to the PNW region. It’s hard to imagine a job being done as reasonably or as well when privatization brings profit for executives, boardroom members and elite shareholders into the equation.
Now, like many federal agencies under the Trump administration (unitary executive), the BPA has undergone very large staffing cuts through mass firings and offers of buyouts in exchange for resignations. Over 20% of BPA staff has been lost (linemen, emergency dispatchers and admin staff) over the previous 3 weeks. The losses will impact the stability and reliability of the PNW high voltage grid.
A crisis has formed and from the outside it appears that the unitary executive is instigating the crisis on purpose. Chaos is a tactic of disaster capitalism which the unitary executive is implementing in order to foment a crisis at the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). As a result of the crisis created by the unitary executive and its mass layoffs there is now reason to be seriously concerned for the reliability, safety and public nature of the Pacific Northwest’s power grid to say nothing of the people who work at the BPA. An unaddressed emergency or cascade of emergencies will not be the fault of the BPA, it will be the fault of the unitary executive. When an emergency is declared by the unitary executive, "in order to keep the lights on”, it becomes a simple matter for the unitary executive to rationalize privatizing the BPA public assets. A crisis fomented by Trump, an emergency declared by Trump and a fire sale/auction privatizing the agency presided over by Trump who will certainly get a commission from the sale for all the hard work he did creating the crisis to begin with.
To learn more, read the letter and follow the links below.
Please feel free to copy and paste the letter into an email of your own or forward as is. At the bottom we have provided all the contact info for our state democratic legislators for Oregon residents.
And please forward this message to your PNW and California networks so they can write letters too. This is literally about keeping power in the hands of the people, not the billionaire class.
The Letter: Copy, paste, and send it to all your representatives and networks!
Dear Elected Official,
Will you commit yourself to proofing Bonneville Power Administration against privatization by supporting and facilitating the BPA's move to a fully regionalized model? I have a deep concern that the Unitary Executive (Trump administration) is preparing to privatize the BPA, which would be a wholesale tragedy for our region. We need a parallel organization (regional compact) to step in at this moment to provide oversight, stability and security to the BPA staff, employees and ratepayers region wide.
Why all the urgency and what am I talking about? Here are some helpful links.
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/investigations/bonneville-power-administration-bpa-trump-layoffs-resignations/283-ea712091-e019-463d-b9ba-961711968675
https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2025_bpa_cuts_letter.pdf
It seems fairly clear that the unitary executive is creating chaos in order to declare emergencies and pave the way to privatizing many parts of our Federal Government including the BPA.
Very serious and immediate threats to our regional economic and civil stability by the unitary executive were highlighted last week by Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (see above letter and article links).
The BPA has provided clean, reliable, safe and relatively cheap hydroelectric power for nearly 100 years and has been self supporting for 50 years. The BPA is being ripened for disaster capitalism to carve it up and sell it off to the oligarchy.
For a great example of an energy backbone being privatized simply look to Texas where grid reliability and resilience has been traded for high prices and short term profits to the Texas oligarchy and elite shareholders.
https://limos.engin.umich.edu/deitabase/2024/12/27/2021-texas-power-grid-failure/
All that being said, the BPA is equally ripe for being regionalized. A parallel organization (regional compact?) stepping in at this moment to provide oversight, stability and security to the BPA staff, employees and ratepayers is necessary.
What does it take to formalize a regional oversight compact between the eight western United States and Canada?
The state and regional lines of communication, structure and relationships already exist.
99% of the pieces are already in place while the remaining bits are waiting to be formalized as a regionalized compact.
We must protect the BPA and we think the present and future PNW would be well served keeping the BPA in the commons as a regionalized agency thereby preventing it from becoming a cash cow for the oligarchy and elite shareholders.
Will you commit yourself to proofing the BPA against privatization by supporting and facilitating the BPA move to a fully regionalized and publicly controlled model?
Sincerely, [Your name and zip code]
Email Addresses for Oregon Democratic Legislators
If you live in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Nevada, Utah or California, you too could be adversely impacted by the privatization of BPA
sen.anthonybroadman@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.wlnsveycampos@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.lewfrederick@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.saragelser@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.jeffgolden@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.chrisgorsek@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.kaysejama@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.katelieber@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.jamesmanning@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.markmeek@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.debpatterson@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.khanhpham@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.floydprozanski@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.lisareynolds@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.janeensollman@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.kathleentaylor@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.robwagner@oregonlegislature.gov,
sen.aaronwoods@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.tomandersen@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.benbowman@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.farrahchaichi@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.willychotzen@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.aprildobson@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.paulevans@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.juliefahey@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.lisafragala@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.davidgomberg@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.danielnguyen@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.hoanguyen@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.annessahartman@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.daciagrayber@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.susanmclain@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.kenhelm@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.markgamba@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.nancynathanson@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.pammarsh@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.leslymunoz@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.johnlively@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.emersonlevy@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.jasonkropf@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.zachhudson@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.shannonisadore@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.travisnelson@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.sarahfingermcdonald@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.andreavalderrama@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.courtneyneron@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.haipham@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.rickiruiz@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.nathansosa@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.robnosse@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.tawnasanchez@oregonlegislature.gov,
rep.thuytran@oregonlegislature.gov,
Rep.JulesWalters@oregonlegislature.gov,
Rep.MariWatanabe@oregonlegislature.gov
