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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2003)
17.2003 14 h '[i];o ;iv i4 im e u > s TmAVAILABLE, „ when OU are! Q ueer E nergy : Two V iews Careful and energetic handling of all your home financing needs MORTGAGE d A d v o c a t e s Where sexual minority activists stand on the proposed public utility district by 6700 SYV l()5th Aw., Suite 200 Heaveiton, < )K 07005 loll h e r (877) 82THW00 Fax (505) 297-082» F.-Mail: adlcciiwA&mtgvidv« Katcs.com www.nitgarivucatcs.coni Cell 503 * 780*1561 N DIGNIFIED PET SERVICES Cremation A Memorials Cor Your Companion • • • • • Unique OteMdticm (Ans Mfcntotia?. Jewe(Uy Personalized Caskets Granite Monuments Hoofes £ Literature 8976 SW Tualatin Sherwood Road Tualatin OR 97062 Phone (503) 885-22II www.DignifiedPetServices.com (A Division o f Cascade f uneral Directors. Inc) 602 SE 38th Ave. Portland, OR 97214 503.231.39ii Wed - Sat PRU L MITCHELL. I V 1 \ f f v Y v B t - : * i K ,v u i j V If S O T H E S W A N K Y , Y O U ’L L T E L E P H O N E T O A N D C A L L T H E W A N T T E L L T O C R A N K T H E U P O P E R A T O R f N E I G H B O R S 1 â ] 1 ■ 1 1 The W iU hire exem plifies the hand- w o r k a n d a r t is a n s h ip o f the C r a f t s m a n era. To see a m id-tw entieth drop by I IO O full range century SE of light Grand early to fixtures, M on -Sal fa i 1 ! k i i \ ’ ■ ■ Y r*î * > Y 1 * F* * • R E J U V E N A T I O N P t l K I I A S P » - « O W l C. PHOTOS BY L esbian E nvironmental A ctivist S ays PUD Is W hat P ortland N eeds Colleen Weed Office 503 * 297*9900 Meg Daly O S I 9 - 6 : 3 0 . S u n 1 1 - 5 , rail 5 0 3 . 2 3 8 . 1 9 0 O . / 1 o r visit r c j u v c n a t i o n . c o m . b * ri ancy Newell doesn’t exactly kx>k like a major enemy of corporate- controlled utilities. The slim, casually dressed 50- something Portlander is full of exuberant energy. Her eyes are warm— with a flicker of devilishness— and she is quick to throw hack her head and laugh. But what she is fight ing for is no laughing matter. As the only queer candidate running for one of the five director positions of the Multnomah County Public Util ity District, she is all seriousness on the subject of citizens taking charge of their utilities. “Public power is a way to gain hack commu nity choices that are hxrally decided,” says Newell, a specialist on deregulation issues in the utility industry. The Multnomah County Public Utility Dis trict is an entity that will he created if voters approve Measure 26-51 (whether to form the PUD) and Measure 26-52 (whether to impose a tax levy amounting to 45 cents on $150,000 property value to fund an engineering study) in a special election Nov. 4. If adopted, the PUD would he locally owned and controlled, with a board of directors elected by voters. It would acquire Portland General Electric’s assets at the lowest price hy using emi nent domain, which means the PUD will not have to hid at the Enron hankmptcy auction. The PUD would he* required to honor existing union contracts of PGE workers. Activists like Newell have been agitating tor a PUD ever since the Enron takeover of PGE in 1997. They claim a PUD would lower rates hy at least 25 percent immediately. According to the Oregon Public Power Committee, savings would come in part from removing the charges for shareholder profits, state and federal income taxes and exorbitant management salaries asso ciated with corporate-controlled utilities. “Overnight, it would become ours,” Newell says, referring to the general public. “We would he able to make our own decisions." Newell says one of the advantages of a PUD is that it would not have to generate profits, in the traditional sense. It would be a strictly cost- based model of energy use— the customers pay only for the costs of their energy. Currently, PGE users pay a number of additional costs each month, including state and federal income taxes. And therein lies one of the main rallying points for the PUD. Proponents say PGE— or, rather, its defunct parent company, Enron— owes Oregon $70 million in income taxes that ratepayers paid to PGE hut that PGE paid to Enron. However, Enron never paid that money to Oregon. At a time when public confidence in large corporate business practices is low, PUD supporters find no comfort in the thought that PGE could he sold to another corporate entity when it goes up for auction. Beyond fraud and unpaid taxes, Newell says a utility company owned by a company like Enron is had news for queers. CEOs at Enron, "Gays and lesbians should pull a plug on the Bush/Cheney/Ashcrofl team. If we adopt a PUD, there will be more money in people's pockets to get Bush out of office. she notes, were major contributors to President Bush’s campaign. “Gays and lesbians should pull a plug on the Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft team,” Newell says. “If we adopt a PUL'), there will be more money in people’s pockets to get Bush out of office.” Newell acknowledges that PGE has a great track record in terms of queer employees. But she says there is no reason those benefits would not continue, especially with a lesbian PUD board member advocating for queer rights Kith within the organization and at a state level. Newell is a 30-year veteran activist on envi ronmental, energy, sexual minority, peace and justice issues. She is co-director of the “No Endmn Committee,” which tried to stop the Enron merger during the Oregon Public Utility Commissions deliberations in 1997. Newell is a former Kiard chairwoman ofCas- cadia Times and Northwest Environmental Advocates. She was a key organizer for former U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Furse, D-Ore., in her first campaign tor Congress. In 1998, Newell was appointed as U.S. con sumer representative to the United Kingdom's Board of Industry anil Trade deliberations on the attempted merger by PacifiCorp with an English corporation that owned and operated most of the coal generating and mining operations in the western United States. Her appointment led to a six-month hearing process in the United Kingdom that caused the $11 billion purchase by PacifiCorp to fail. Her main objection was the failure of PacifiCorp to aid the internation al effort to reduce global warming. “We’ve had comfort in the U.S. at the
