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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 1982)
emerald platform WPPSS fiasco Bills burn in night Should Springfield Utility Board ratepayers pay nearly $124 million for electricity that will never be available tor their use? Four hundred Springfield residents marched — bearing candles against the dark and chanting in the cold Wednes day — to answer that question with an emphatic refusal. Springfield utility users are suffering under the debt incurred by SUB in its disasterous participation in the Washington Public Power Supply System. Five years ago SUB signed a contract with WPPSS that bound the utility to a 1 47 percent share of the construction of two nuclear power plants. The contract was legally binding — the $124 million is due regardless of whether the plants were ever completed Construction on power plants Nos 4 and 5, the principle sources of Sringfield’s WPPSS power allotment, was halted last summer when financing failed. The decision to terminate the plants has also incurred costs over and above SUB’s initial estimate SUB's association with WPPSS has been a major money fiasco The SUB contract with WPPSS has been so much bad paper for Springfield utility users The 400 ratepayers marching Wednesday represented a grassroots revolt against SUB and its treatment of customers as so many serfs in their feudal scheme. “SUB signed away Springfield ratepayers money,'' without their consent, Leslie Ratley said Ratley, a University journalism and political science student, is one of the original three plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in December challenging the utility's involvement in the WPPSS project. So far at least 26 people have joined in the lawsuit since the filing The challenge has changed with the termination of WPPSS plants No. 4 and 5. The lawsuit now claims SUB’s agreement to pay for nonexistent electricity from the now-defunct power plants is illegal. The lawsuit’s challenge to SUB's WPPSS involvement is essentially valid as it points out the amount of debt incurred well exceeds the debt limit set by Springfield's city charter At Wednesday’s city council meeting five of six council members and the mayor of Springfield went on record supporting an SUB decision to oppose the ratepayers lawsuit seeking to nullify the utility's involvement in WPPSS When SUB was considering involvement with WPPSS. Congressman Jim Weaver asked the utility board to let its ratepayers vote on whether to enter a contract agreement But Weaver says “they (SUB) were contemptuous and arrogant. They said nc.” The plaintiffs in the lawsuit echo Weaver's statement charging the board with overstepping its authority when it signed the original WPPSS contract without voter approval The plaintiffs contend that this is another reason to declare the contract void SUB’s share of some $2.5 billion in bonds already sold for WPPSS projects is estimated at $40 million — with interest and principal payments over the 35-year term of the bonds that comes to nearly $124 million This debt is only the beginning as SUB is in the process of determining whether to advance a loan to WPPSS to help cover the termination costs of plants Nos 4 and 5. SUB on recommendation of Howard Rankin, special legal counsel, decided to defer entering into this termination agreement." To defer is not to cancel altogether Who pays? The Springfield utility users pay and pay and pay — for the next 35 years if the legal challenge to SUB S involvement in WPPSS fails The challenge shouldn t fail as it resides on the firm arguments of ratepayer approval and violation of the Springfield city charter Beyond these points, most courts with a basis in the common law would not hold the Springfield ratepayers liable for payment for nonexistent WPPSS electricity. The 400 marchers in Springfield were a cross-section of the people of Springfield, not only those who consistently protest nuclear power. They marched as the harassed ratepayers whose utility bills escalated two-fold over last year. And in their justifiable ire some used the candles they bore against the darkness to ignite their utility bills. NUKE rr LOONS UNE THISOPERWON ONES TOR W PAMOuS tWSU*9* EnS'PE MANNER harry esteve editor’s note Since the beginning of the anti-nuclear movement, environmentalists have argued economics — as well as health risks — in efforts to prevent nuclear power construc tion. In the past few weeks, the environmen talists have been proven right And they're saying “I told you so.” The l-told-you-so's began at Three Mile Island Anti-nuclear activists had warned against the dangers of leaking plutonium, while nuclear engineers scoffed But pluton ium leaked during the Three Mile Island disaster. There were allegations that the public would be expected to pay for mishaps like Three Mile Island s — allegations Pennsyl vania officials denied A year later. Pennsyl vania ratepayers and citizens around Three Mile Island were paying increased rates and taxes to cover the clean-up costs Last week, environmentalists had yet another chance to gloat about predictions coming true when it was reported that one third of all the nuclear plants in the United States were shut down — victims of leaks, equipment failures and other problems anti nukers had warned about Of the 72 operating plants in the country 25 were idle Radiation leaked out of nearly every one And money continues to be flushed away every day they remain closed A simple "I told you so " is little solace Now the Washington Public Power Sup ply System is offering up the most poignant example of nuclear economic waste yet Naturally the l-toid-you-so's are flowing, and Oregon's energetic, democratic congress man. Jim Weaver is effusing some of the loudest 'My warnings that construction of these colossal white elephants would drive our energy costs sky-high, bankrupt our region's smaller utilities, and eventually collapse of their own financial weight, were scoffed at and ridiculed by utility executives,' Weaver said in a January energy and environment report His statements elicit cheers from rate payers who are paying for the WPPSS fiasco, but do little to lower their electric bills Perhaps there is little that can be done The money already has been wasted the environment already has suffered radiation sickness Saying "I told you so" doesn't help any, unless energy executives and Washington D C officials get sick of hearing it But they don't, obviously So here are a few we-are-telling - you so's The Reagan administration's desire to debilitate the Environment Protection Agency, to dismantle the Clean Air Act, to close the Office of Surface Mining and to gut the federal solar energy research budget in favor of nuclear promotion, could mean the largest environmental step backward — ever Under Ann Gorsuch — an ex-Colorado state senator who constantly fought against environmental legislation in that state — the EPA plans to eliminate two-thirds of its pol lution prevention programs It also plans to rollback emission standards for new au tomobiles and to lift some deadlines for achieving clean air in some parts of the country The nationwide movement toward cleaner air will continue. Gorsuch insists, but at a more reasoned pace ' Anti-environment action such as this will mean an increase in acid rain, continued strip mining in some of the nation's most beautiful parks, and constant air pollution levels that rival those during heavy field burning days in the Willamette Valley It also will allow environmentalists to choke out a few more l-told-you-so's — some of the most empty sounding words ever spoken Tha Dragon Dally EmaraU la publlahad Monday through Friday axcapt during finala waak and racatlon a by tha Dragon Dally Emarald Publishing Co. News 686-5511 Advartlalng /Bualnaaa 686-3/12 Classittada 686-4343 Production 686-4381 Editor Sally Hodgkmson Managing Editor Gabriel Boehmer Haws Editor Harry Esteve Aaalatant Haws Editor John Healy Photo Editor Bob Baker Graphict Editor Max DeRungt Editorial Page Editor Cort Fernald Sports Editor Sieve Spatz Associate Sports Editor Jett Dickerson Entertainment Editor Matt Meyer Night Editor John Mealy Asgoclet* Editor* ASUO Dane Claussen Community Marian Green Departmenti and Schooli Debbie Howlett Features Caroline Potrich Higher Education Ann Portal Politics / Environment Ron Hunt General Staff Advertising Directs Darlene Gore Claaaltled Advertising Sally Ol/ar Production Manager Ann Peterson Controller Jean Ownbey
