Chairman Milburn,
Montana’s electric cooperatives have significant concerns about recent workforce reductions at the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA). A joint letter to the Secretary of Energy from the federal Power Marketing Administrations regarding this issue is attached for your review. We understand Governor Gianforte is scheduled to meet with Secretary Wright this week and we want to ensure you were aware of our concerns should you have the opportunity to visit with the Governor in advance of the meeting. Michael Freeman, Governor Gianforte’s Energy and Natural Resources Policy Advisor, received an email about this issue from Flathead Electric Cooperative last week and is copied on this message.
While we support the administration’s goal of cost control to benefit taxpayers, it’s important for administration officials to understand the operational expenses of BPA and WAPA are funded entirely by public power ratepayers, not taxpayers. As such, reductions in staffing at BPA and WAPA do not contribute to federal spending reduction initiatives. Should future staff reductions be proposed, we ask Congress and the Department of Energy to work with Montana’s electric cooperatives to ensure grid reliability and transmission development opportunities in our regions.
MECA independently confirmed recent news reports stating BPA will lose 14 percent of its workforce, including mission critical positions and other personnel responsible for grid management and transmission development. This could have significant near-term impacts on grid reliability and may delay BPA’s planned $5 billion investment in regional transmission, including those scheduled for Montana, at a time when transmission constraints limit the ability of cooperatives to serve new loads.
BPA is losing transmission planners, engineers, project designers, information technology professionals, and other critical employees. This is a serious concern for Montana’s electric cooperative utilities and risks putting the state at an economic disadvantage. BPA operates 75 percent of the transmission infrastructure in western Montana and is faced with an uphill battle to develop an unprecedented amount of new transmission infrastructure in the coming years to meet growth projections. We are concerned about the economic development impacts in our area and across the state if we are unable to develop transmission projects to expand our capacity to serve growth and attract new business to the state, particularly large data centers and technology hubs looking to locate in the Northwest.
WAPA markets federal hydropower to consumer-owned utilities in eastern Montana. In addition to its marketing responsibilities, WAPA is a key utility partner of Montana’s cooperatives, providing transmission and balancing authority services, among other essential grid reliability elements. Like BPA, WAPA experienced arbitrary staffing cuts without consideration of individual roles, responsibilities and experience—potentially impacting the safety and reliability of WAPA’s core mission in the short and long term. Fortunately, the Department of Energy recently rescinded terminations of some key WAPA operational staff, but we remain focused on any potential future staff cuts that would impact grid reliability.
Please consider our serious concerns about these workforce reductions and the impacts they will have on BPA and WAPA ratepayers.
Sincerely,
Gary Wiens
Chief Executive Officer
Montana Electric Cooperatives’ Association
501 Bay Drive
Great Falls, MT 59403
(406) 868-9177