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83rd OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2025 Regular Session
House Joint Memorial 10
Sponsored by Representative GAMBA; Representatives HELM, WRIGHT, Senators GOLDEN, SOLLMAN
SUMMARY
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject
to consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor’s brief statement of the essential features of the
measure as introduced.The statement includes a measure digest written in compliance with applicable readability
standards.
Digest: Asks DOE and Congress to urge BPA to make cleaner, cheaper energy that everyone in
the Pacific Northwest can count on. (Flesch Readability Score: 60.6).
Requests the United States Department of Energy and the United States Congress to support
the Bonneville Power Administration in providing cleaner, more affordable and more reliable energy
to all consumers in the Pacific Northwest.
JOINT MEMORIAL
To the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of Energy, the administrator of
the Bonneville Power Administration, and the Senate and the House of Representatives of the
United States of America, in Congress assembled:
We, your memorialists, the Eighty-third Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon, in legisla-
tive session assembled, respectfully represent as follows:
Whereas the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) was created by the United States Congress
in 1937 with the intent to benefit the entire Pacific Northwest; and
Whereas BPA is financed by all ratepayers across the region, including consumer-owned utili-
ties, investor-owned utilities, independent power producers and marketers, direct-service industries
and federal agencies, as well as customers in California, Canada and other regions; and
Whereas BPA’s electrical transmission system makes up approximately 75 percent of the high
voltage transmission capacity of the entire Pacific Northwest; and
Whereas the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act of 1980 obligates
BPA to provide energy from the 31 federally owned dams on the Columbia River and its tributaries
to its public power preference customers, but does not otherwise obligate BPA to maintain its
transmission system sufficiently to meet the needs of all of its transmission customers across the
region;and
Whereas it is in the highest interest of the general public, of the efficiency and reliability of the
critical electrical grid and of the economy of the Pacific Northwest that Oregon become part of re-
gional solutions across the Western Interconnection; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
That we, the members of the Eighty-third Legislative Assembly, respectfully request that the
United States Department of Energy and the United States Congress urge BPA to:
(1) In pursuit of market optimization, only join a day-ahead market that can quantifiably move
the Pacific Northwest toward net economic benefits and enable all energy consumers to reap the
benefits of competitive pricing, a reliable and resilient infrastructure and preparedness for future
load growth, assuming market rules are subject to sufficiently independent governance;
(2) Continue the historic practice of maximizing the use of low-cost federal debt to build out its
NOTE:Matter in boldfaced type in an amended section is new; matter [italic and bracketed] is existing law to be omitted.
New sections are in boldfaced type.
LC 707 HJM10
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electrical transmission system across the West;
(3) Utilize grid-enhancing technologies to the greatest extent possible to increase the capacity
and safety of its electrical transmission system in the short term;
(4) Follow Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order No. 1920 on planning horizons, con-
sidering all the needs of the region for which BPA is the high voltage transmission backbone; and
(5) Increase transparency on construction costs and make robust use of competitive practices
when awarding construction contracts; and be it further
Resolved, That we urge the federal government to provide competitive compensation authority
to BPA to hire and retain the technical and other expertise it needs to meet its organizational
mission; and be it further
Resolved, That a copy of this memorial shall be sent to the President of the United States, to
the United States Secretary of Energy, to the administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration,
to the Senate Majority Leader, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and to each member
of the Oregon Congressional Delegation.
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