At energy hearing
Public protests proposed rate hike
By CATHERINE SIEGNER
Of the Emerald
Officials from the Bonneville
Power Administration (BPA)
heard public comment on the
agency’s proposed 90 percent
wholesale rate increase last night
at the Eugene Hotel.
Those testifying agreed on one
Archivist -
were. Men weren’t supposed to
see the bare ankle.”
Classes have changed too.
This wasn’t always a liberal arts
college, he says, describing the
classical education our predeces
sors received.
"Before 1890, teachers ex
pected students to memorize ex
tensively. They had to recite every
week, and four years of Greek and
Latin were required."
Another trend Richard has fol
lowed is the gradual year increase
in the number of University
graduate students, a peak in the
late 1960s, and a decline ever
since.
Down the aisle from the Greek
textbooks are the old yeart>ooks.
Richard picks up an 1902 annual
titled ‘Webfoot."
"Webfoot had absolutely no
thing to do with a duck originally,”
he says. “There’s a picture in here
of a man whose feet have been
turned into webfeet. It’s really
rather grotesque."
People west of the Rockies
used to be cailed
“webfoot”—people who lived off
the sea, he explains
So much for Donald Duck.
Nevertheless, trophies from
Duck teams fill one corner of the
thing: they don't like BPA’s plans.
A draft environmental impact
statement on the new rate
schedule was published in Au
gust. It laid the blame for the
necessary increase on costs of
both the Trojan nuclear plant and
the three nuclear plants BPA is
essentially underwriting for the
Washington Public Power Supply
System (a consortium of public
utilities in Washington state).
The agency held a public infor
mation session Sept. 12 in
Eugene to explain the rate in
crease, scheduled to go into effect
in Dec. 1979. Last night’s hearing
was to give members of the public
a chance to comment for the re
cord.
Lane Co. Commissioner Jerry
Rust, representing himself only,
(Continued from Page 3)
room. With ail the material cram
med every inch of archive space,
there doesn’t seem to be much
room for more history to accumu
late.
“We re going to reduce it to mic
rofilm, and then the vast majority
of it will be recycled,’’ Richard
says.
Aside from running out of spaoe,
fire danger is another worry of any
archivist. Work is currently being
done on the installation of a new
fire suppression system, which
uses halon gas rather than water to
put out the flames. That way, in
case of fire, the archival copy-and
sometimes the only copy-of
somebody's doctoral thesis
doesn’t get soggy.
This kind of fire suppression
system is the only one of its kind in
the state system Richard says.
Everything around the room
suggests historical significance,
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even Richard’s desk. “This desk
was purchased in 1894 for $45.
It’d probably cost one or two
thousand now," he says.
He's got the receipt upstairs
somewhere among six jerseys
from the 1939 basketball team.
They are the only jerseys that
have been ‘retired,’ ” he says.
The University archives are un
ique.
Where else could one discover
that in 1908 this University’s year
book was called ‘ Beaver’’?
Or that leftover proceeds from the
debate team used to go to the ath
letic department, which had trou
ble making ends meet in the early
part of this century?
It’s a good place to get lost in
history and probably the only
place on campus where you'll find
Goodman’s “Greek Grammar.”
said he would like to know the ex
tent of the public's indebtedness
in the BPA dam system on the
Columbia River.
“There's $5 billion invested,
and after 34 years, only one
seventh has been paid off,” he
said. “I’m asking BPA to reveal the
payback plan you envision. What
is your timetable, and what will be
the total interest?” he asked.
“Your agency has the attitude that
the region’s ratepayers will pay for
whatever it can get Congress to
agree to. We should know the
costs of these plants before we
get into them.”
Cameron Hubbe said approxi
mately 70 percent of the rate in
crease results from guaranteeing
utilities they will be paid for power
from Trojan and the plants in
Washington now under construc
tion.
“It’s been an unwise invest
ment,” she said. "If you had come
to the ratepayers before getting
involved in these contracts,
maybe you could have avoided
this.”
Hubbe commented utilities that
have not invested in nuclear
power should not have to sub
sidize rates for those who have.
“Nuclear power is economically
disastrous. Why doesn’t BPA dis
tribute the rate increase to those
utilities that have invested the
heaviest?”
Gwen Jaspers said the
Northwest’s aluminum companies
should pay a rate that more
reasonably reflects the cost of
power.
“They could use aluminum
scraps. They only need five per
cent of the electricity needed to
produce aluminum from bauxite.”
Sandy Pitler questioned BPA's
public hearing process. “Why is a
hearing held after you make a de
cision?” he asked. “BPA is trying
to limit testimony to how the rate
increase should be implemented,
not why, or even if, it should be
implemented.”
He said BPA could offer con
servation as an alternative to ex
pensive nuclear power.
“Instead of pushing conserva
tion or renewable resources, you
invest our money through rates in
the most inefficient form of energy
there is — nuclear power,” he
said.
BPA will accept written com
ments on the draft rate proposal
until Nov. 30. All comments will be
analyzed and included in the final
proposal to be sent to the U.S.
Dept, of Energy in early March,
1979.
Comments or questions should
be sent to Public Involvement
Coordinator, Bonneville Power
Administration, P.O. Box 12999,
Portland, Ore. 97212.
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