Unloading the Pacific Northwest’s major power purveyor is one of thousands of ideas in the annual budget the Trump administration released late February. It’s part of a broader push by the president and his allies to privatize federal infrastructure in the name of free-market efficiency. The Tennessee Valley Authority, Southwestern Power Administration, and Western Area Power Administration also are targeted for divestment. Getting the federal government out of the power-transmission business, “would encourage a more efficient allocation of economic resources and mitigate risk to taxpayers,” the budget document contends. The administration also favors letting BPA and its counterparts charge market-based rates like for-profit utilities, “rather than being limited to cost-based rates.”
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