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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2020)
8B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2020 COFFEE BREAK Can we ban spoiled niece with history of misbehaving at parties? DEAR ABBY: My husband and I want to host a college grad- uation party for our son. The problem is, one of my sisters has four children — three teenagers and an 11-year-old who doesn’t behave at parties. My sister calls her “Our Little Precious.” She and her husband come to events, ignore the kids and want this to be their time to “relax.” Another sister has two teenagers who are very well behaved. My husband wants to ban Little Precious from the graduation party and invite the well-behaved teenagers. I agree with my hus- band that I do not want another party ruined, especially since my son worked so hard to grad- uate. But I don’t want to cause a permanent rift in the family either. My sister is very stub- born, hot-tempered and clueless. Advice? — SISTER DEAR SISTER: DEAR Your son deserves to celebrate the ABBY milestone he has earned without the distraction of an unruly child casting a shadow over the event. Consider having a small gathering for immediate family only, and something larger at another time that includes your son’s friends as well as your own. Or invite your sister and her family with the proviso that if Little Precious acts up, they will leave and take her home. Precious, my foot! DEAR ABBY: An acquaintance I see occasionally has a grooming problem I’m reluctant to tell him about because I don’t know him well: He has hairs growing out of his nose, and they are not only noticeable but distracting. How can I apprise him of this without embarrassing him and myself? — DIPLOMAT DEAR DIPLOMAT: Allow me to answer that question by quoting an ancient Chinese proverb: “When in doubt, do nothing.” While your intent is to be helpful, it would cause embarrassment, and I don’t recommend it. DEAR ABBY: I have a friend who is an alcoholic. I met her when we fi rst moved here fi ve years ago. At that time, I wasn’t aware of her drinking problem. Over the years it has become very apparent. I have yelled at her, shown concern for her, threatened rehab, begged her to get help, etc. She calls me late in the eve- ning rambling on about ridiculous things, repeating the same stories over and over, crying, claiming she’s having panic attacks and all sorts of other health ailments that are most likely caused by her drinking. I am at my wits’ end with her. She’s a good person and has a good heart, but I know I can’t save her because she’s already stated she will never stop drinking. How do I manage to keep my own sanity? I sometimes feel like I enable her by not calling her out on all her excuses for her prob- lems when I know well they’re all because of the drinking. — ENABLER IN MINNESOTA DEAR ENABLER: I have two suggestions for you. The fi rst is to go online to al-anon.org to fi nd the nearest location for meet- ings and attend some. Al-Anon is a sister organization of Alco- holics Anonymous, and it was founded to help and support the friends and family members of people who have an alcohol problem. It will help you to under- stand that YOU cannot help your friend. Only SHE can do that by mustering up the resolve to quit drinking. Many alcoholics do this only after they fi nally what their addiction has cost them. In this case, the price may be her friend- ship with you. The second is to tell your friend — while she is sober — that she cannot continue calling you when she has been drinking, and that if she does, you will hang up. Then do it. BPA seeks to clear misconceptions about removing power-generating dams Dam removal would force co-ops into move faster to power market By Katy Nesbitt For the EO Media Group PORTLAND — With a public comment period on the operation of Bonneville Power Administra- tion’s 14 hydropower generating dams ending April 13, offi cials are working to dispel widely held misconceptions about the sys- tems’ management. The draft Columbia River System Operations Draft Envi- ronmental Impact Statement was released Feb. 28 for a 45-day public comment period. Amy Echols, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers outreach coordinator for the fi sh and environment team, said six public meetings were scheduled to be held around the Northwest, but were moved online because of recent federal and state precautions around the COVID-19 virus. Echols said the virtual public meetings in regards to the draft EIS, co-authored by BPA, Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation had the same facilitation and presenters. She said the teleconference format worked well. “One of the advantages of this format is that people from all over the region, and even outside the region, could attend without having to travel,” she said. “It provided a glimmer of opportu- nity in the midst of change.” With 190 people signed into a four-hour call on March 31, Echols said 90 people were able to provide verbal comment. Doug Johnson, senior spokes- person for BPA, said the three sponsoring agencies, along with a list of 30 other government stakeholders, began work on the Columbia River Systems Oper- ations analysis in August 2016. The anticipated release of the fi nal environmental impact state- ment is scheduled for July and the Record of Decision should be published by September. Now with the comment period is drawing near, Johnson said he wanted to make sure some of the errancies that arose are clarifi ed. Dams provide more than 4% to BPA One of the most confusing issues is the repeated statement the lower Snake River dams only contribute 4% to BPA’s total. ed ne ORE M Show Listings, rds, o w s s o r C , u Sudok ts r o p S , h c r a Word Se ...? e r o M & s e Quizz What is crucial to note, Johnson said, is the electricity generated by the Snake River dams accounts for a little more than 10% of the electricity BPA sells to its 136 preference cus- tomers — public utility districts, municipal electric utilities and rural cooperatives, including Oregon Trail Electric Coopera- tive based in Baker City.These districts and co-ops are con- sidered preference customers because they get 100% of their power from BPA. “The cost of replacing the power from the dams would hit them in a disproportionate manner,” Johnson wrote in an email. “Removing the Snake River Dams and replacing them with natural gas genera- tion would increase the rates of PUDs, municipal electric utili- ties and electric cooperatives by 8.2 to 9.6 percent. If those dams were replaced by a combination of renewables, battery storage and other non-carbon measures, which may be more likely given current state renewable portfolio standards and other carbon leg- islative proposals, it is projected to increase those rates by 9.5 to 19.3 percent.” Oregon Trail Electric serves 61,000 people in four counties. Chief Financial Offi cer Anthony Bailey said as a co-op, OTEC only receives power from BPA and is dependent on the deci- sions that affect Bonneville. “Assuming dams went away the (preference customer) util- ities would have to develop their own (power generating) resources or buy Tier-2 power through a contract,” Bailey said. “It would force us into the market much quicker instead of BPA being able to manage for us.” Natural gas, others hit BPA Another criticism that arose among the public comments is BPA sells power for less than it costs to produce. Johnson said 78% of the revenue BPA gen- erates is from its preference customers. The remaining 12% of rev- enue comes from what he called “surplus sales” or “secondary revenue.” “When we produce more power than our wholesale cus- tomers need then we go to the spot market and sell it at a rate oftentimes lower than our whole- sale rate,” Johnson said. In recent years, BPA power is Check out our new TV Magazine fetching less on the spot market than it did traditionally for a few reasons, Johnson said. He listed lower natural gas prices and the infl ux of wind and solar energy as contributing factors. BPA also takes a hit periodically during spring high fl ows or when a lot of wind power is produced. “In rare circumstances, we provide energy on the spot market for less than it costs to produce, Johnson said. “It’s the exception, not the rule.” Addressing claims that BPA is becoming fi nancially insolvent, Johnson said a couple of years ago, BPA adopted a strategy to cut spending. He blamed a lack of “cost dis- cipline” and said by trimming $66 million of costs planned for the current two-year rate period, BPA was able to hold rates fl at for the fi rst time in more than a decade. “Considering that between 2008 and 2018, BPA wholesale power rates increased on average about 3.6% per year, this clearly demonstrates the fi nancial disci- pline to bend the cost curve and provide low-cost, carbon-free hydropower to our public power utility customers across the Northwest,” he said. Y R E V E Y A D R SATU BLACK E LOGO REVERS LOGO R - COLO G N CHAN BAR CA