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This is the Council's Monthly Spotlight e-newsletter. Each month, you'll receive the latest news from Council meetings, including recent decisions, news from state offices, and updates on energy and the environment.

March 2005 Issue

Council Directs Staff to Conduct Analysis of BPA Borrowing Authority Proposal

Terry Morlan, manager of economic analysis, briefed the Council on the key findings of an analysis on the effects of the Bush administration's budget proposal to move the Bonneville Power Administration to market-based electricity pricing. The Council then directed Morlan to initiate an analysis of the administration's other BPA-related proposal that would alter the agency's federal capital borrowing authority limitation.
     Although the details of the Bush administration proposal are not yet available, the Council believed that a general analysis would be of value. At the least, it appears that the proposal would require BPA to include private, third-party bonds that BPA backs under its statutorily defined federal borrowing authority limit of $4.45 billion. The Council is concerned that this would exhaust BPA's capital borrowing authority at a much faster rate than currently expected and impede progress on important transmission system upgrades that are essential to maintain the reliability of the Northwest's electricity system.
    Morlan said an initial analysis could be completed within a few weeks.

Council Tackles Subbasin Planning Issues

Along with approving four more subbasin plans for amendment into the Council's fish and wildlife program and releasing another set of subbasin plans for pubic comment, Council members also approved a draft letter to the public describing how the Council intends to resolve a short list of broad process issues (150k PDF) identified by stakeholders.

    In another vein, the Council considered the staff's proposed schedule for completing work to adopt subbasin plans and how to treat the issues identified by staff in its evaluation of the plans. Read more (200k PDF).

Latest Research Suggests Snake River Fall Chinook Salmon Are Unexpectedly Adaptable

Kenneth Tiffan of the U.S. Geological Survey presented his group's latest research (3.5m PDF) on juvenile fall Chinook salmon in the Snake River. Their findings shed light on a "reservoir-type" of juvenile fish that stays in the river over the winter and migrates out in spring. The study found that 41 percent of the wild adult returns and 51 percent of the hatchery adult returns were these over-wintering fish. The study has implications for the region's current hydropower strategies to aid fish such as transportation, flow augmentation, and bypass spill.
 

Coming Up

• April 12-14: Council meeting in Boise

For more, visit www.nwcouncil.org.

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