BPA Ad 2024Choosing the right energy market in the Western U.S. is critical to meet the Pacific Northwest’s projected energy needs while keeping rates low and preparing for a more reliable and resilient energy future that includes abundant salmon and steelhead.

Unfortunately, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which sells power from federal dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, published a draft decision to join Markets+. If BPA joins Markets+, it will create significant problems for regional electric prices, decarbonization, and salmon recovery.

Now more than ever, smart energy choices will define the future. 
BPA needs to get it right.

U.S. Senators from Oregon and Washington recently voiced their concerns, urging BPA to make a carefully considered choice. As we move forward to energize our economy, BPA must choose an energy market that fosters reliability and affordability for customers while also protecting our environment—including the salmon that define our Northwest way of life.

We need BPA to make a wise decision for everyone in our region.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP: 

BPA expects to finalize their decision to join an energy market in early May. We need your help to urge BPA, and Northwest elected officials, to unify the west, rather than split the market, in order to lower energy costs for consumers AND decarbonize the energy grid. 

TAKE ACTION

BACKGROUND: Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) rushed through a major decision to join Markets+ that will have major long-term implications for the Northwest in terms of energy costs and reliability, our ability to integrate new renewables and to address climate change, our energy grid’s overall environmental footprint, including salmon recovery and the health of the Columbia and Snake Rivers, and undermines our nation’s treaties and commitments to Northwest Tribes made more than 150 years ago.

WHAT ARE ENERGY MARKETS AND WHY DOES THIS DECISION MATTER? Energy markets are formal structures through which electric utilities can buy and sell energy. BPA is currently deciding which of the two energy markets in the Western U.S. to join: the Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM) or Markets+. BPA’s hasty decision to join Markets+ creates a real risk for our region:

I. The Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM), and the development of a single larger market, provides greater benefits for ratepayers, the environment, and the region. It is a better path to begin transitioning away from our region’s high dependency on the changing and less reliable hydro system. The broad base of clean resources available through EDAM will allow BPA to generate less power from the federal hydro system and enable the development of new carbon-free resources and transmission with less duplication and more efficiency.

II. BPA is needlessly rushing to join Markets+, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, rather than the existing western EDAM. The impact of this decision will affect the reliability and affordability for Northwest power consumers for years to come. BPA is facing significant backlogs on the transmission and interconnection side of operations and staffing challenges. There are several studies still being completed and Markets+ doesn't yet have an approved proposal. All of the many regional market studies, including BPA's own, show that two markets in the Northwest would greatly increase cost and reliability risk.

III. If BPA joins Markets+, the Western region will be split into two energy markets, and potential benefits will be significantly diluted. Western utilities and BPA should be encouraged to organize into a single market, not a bifurcated and limited system. A single Westwide power market will allow broader use and development of lower cost, carbon-free power sources that will aid in decarbonizing the energy system and lowering electricity costs for consumers. 

See SOS' full-color, full-page ad that ran in the Seattle Times on Sunday, August 18.

LINKS TO FURTHER INFORMATION:

Press coverage:

Factsheets:

Recent letters from regional policymakers and power utilities to BPA Administrator John Hairston and the Trump Administration:

Other resources:

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