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