Page 8
Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
July 28, 2021
Tribes, PGE extend of purchase agreement
‘Large enough to
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2020
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2019
Chevrolet
Malibu -
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Malibu -
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$13,995
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2017
Buick
Encore -
17,730
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2015
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Equinox -
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$12,995
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2015
Dodge
Durango -
136,440
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Chevrolet
Suburban
- 137,207
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2012
Chevrolet
Silverado
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2006
Buick
Lucerne -
101,393
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$7,995
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The Confederated Tribes
and Portland General Electric
entered a new agreement ex-
tending their long-standing
partnership at the Pelton-
Round Butte hydro project.
Under the new agreement,
PGE will continue to pur-
chase power generated from
the tribes’ share of the
project through 2040.
The long-term power pur-
chase agreement is forecasted
to fulfill 224 megawatts, or
40 percent of PGE’s out-
standing 2025 capacity needs
with the clean, reliable elec-
tricity. As a flexible resource,
Pelton-Round Butte is ca-
pable of increasing and de-
creasing output to maximize
market demand.
The Pelton-Round Butte
project was completed in
1964 and includes the three
dams—Pelton, Round Butte
and the tribes’ Re-Reg—
along a 20-mile stretch in the
Deschutes River Canyon. In
total, the project produces
approximately 500 mega-
watts of emissions-free elec-
tricity—enough to power
about 150,000 homes, or a
city the size of Salem.
In addition to entering into
this new power purchase
agreement, the Confederated
Tribes—through Tribal Coun-
cil and Power and Water En-
terprises—earlier announced
the intention to increase the
tribes’ ownership share in
Pelton-Round Butte from 33
percent to 49 percent.
The Confederated Tribes
became co-owners of the
Pelton and Round Butte fa-
cilities in 2001, through an
agreement that provided the
tribes with an additional op-
portunity to purchase a
greater share of the project
this year.
Job growth continues to rebound in region
The unemployment rate in
Jefferson County, including
the Warm Springs area, con-
tinued to improve in June.
Unemployment in the
county in June was 6.8 per-
cent, down from 7 percent in
May. The rate is still higher
than before the pandemic,
when it was 4.1 percent in
June of 2020.
Nonfarm employment in
Jefferson County rose by 80
jobs in June. Monthly job
gains were concentrated in
tribal government (plus 30
jobs); leisure and hospitality
(plus 30 jobs); and retail trade
( plus 20 jobs), according to
the Oregon Department of
Employment.
The job gains in leisure and
hospitality have largely
matched seasonal expecta-
tions the past several months
with the industry struggling to
recover from the pandemic.
The drop in unemploy-
ment rates is reinforced by
the decline in the number of
workers claiming unemploy-
ment benefits. The number
of residents claiming benefits
in Central Oregon dropped
each month this year and was
down by 60 percent in June
from levels in January.
Deschutes County in-
cluding Bend: The seasonally
adjusted unemployment rate
ticked down to 5.9 percent in
June from 6.1 percent in May.
The unemployment rate re-
mains higher than before
the first impacts from
Covid-19 in February 2020
when it was 3.3 percent.
Crook County: The sea-
sonally adjusted unemploy-
ment rate was 7.4 percent
in June, down slightly from
7.6 percent in May. The un-
employment rate remains
higher than before the first
impacts from Covid-19 in
February 2020 when it was
4.4 percnet.