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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
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