A10
State
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Energy secretary visits McNary Dam
Perry mum
on BPA
privatization
By George Plaven
EO Media Group
EO Media Group/E.J. Harris
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, McNary Dam operations manager Dave Coleman and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon,
tour the McNary Dam on Monday in Umatilla.
agement and Budget, urging
them to support the BPA.
“We believe divesting
BPA’s transmission assets
will harm individuals and
businesses, divert capital
needed for further infra-
structure investment in the
Northwest, and undermine
regional utility coordina-
tion,” the letter reads in part.
“BPA has helped to devel-
op and administer the com-
plex electrical system that
powers the Northwest, now
providing affordable and
reliable power to over 12
million people and the busi-
nesses that help the region
thrive.”
Still, Perry was mum
when asked where he stood
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EO Media Group/E.J. Harris
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry speaks about hydro
electric power at a press conference after touring the
McNary Dam with Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, on
Monday in Umatilla.
on the issue, saying only that
they should not be afraid to
have that conversation be-
fore moving on to another
topic.
Walden, on the other
hand, was more direct in
his defense of the agency.
He expressed confidence
that the BPA will remain
public, adding that the no-
tion of privatization has
united just about every
member of the Northwest
delegation.
“(BPA) does its job.
And it has a darn important
job in our region,” Walden
said.
On the subject of hydro-
electricity and renewable en-
ergy as a whole, Perry said
he is an “all-of-the-above
guy,” pointing to the devel-
opment of wind power and
fracked natural gas during
his time as governor of Tex-
as.
DACA supporters gather at Oregon Capitol
By Claire Withycombe
Capital Bureau
Oregon’s capital city was
the Monday night stop for
youth activists traveling from
California to Washington
to show support for federal
programs that allow certain
undocumented immigrants,
including young people and
those from countries experi-
encing war or environmental
disasters, to stay in the United
States.
A few dozen people gath-
ered on Oregon’s capitol mall
Monday evening in a show
of support for recipients of
the federal government’s De-
ferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program, called
DACA, and those who have
received Temporary Protected
Status.
DACA applies to certain
immigrants who came to the
country as children; tempo-
rary protected status can be
extended to people who came
to the U.S. from countries that
the Department of Homeland
Security has designated un-
safe to return to due to such
“extreme” conditions as envi-
ronmental disasters or war.
The gathering followed
a weekend of violence that
broke out between white
supremacists and counter-
protestors gathering in Char-
lottesville, Virginia, which
organizer Leonardo Reyes, of
the Oregon DACA coalition,
said rendered him “speech-
less.”
“We are at a time when
we’re trying to figure out
what our country stands for
and what we believe in,”
Reyes told the crowd.
The event at the state cap-
itol was held Monday not
only to commemorate the
fifth-year anniversary of the
first date people could receive
DACA — Aug. 15, 2012 —
but also to protest the action
by a group of state attorneys
general who have threatened
to sue the federal govern-
ment if the Trump administra-
tion does not discontinue the
DACA program by Sept. 5.
Texas Attorney General
Ken Paxton and officials from
nine other states have said
EO Media Group/Claire Withycombe
Supporters of the DACA program for children of illegal
immigrants gather on the Capitol Mall Monday in Salem.
that if the federal government
does not take action by that
date, they will file lawsuits.
According to previous me-
dia reports, attorneys general
from Alabama, Arkansas, Ida-
ho, Kansas, Louisiana, Ne-
braska, South Carolina, Ten-
nessee and West Virginia are
also part of the group asking
the federal government to re-
scind the DACA program.
Reyes said before Mon-
day’s rally that activists want-
ed to create regional unity
among states on the West
Coast.
The Oregon DACA Coa-
lition, a Salem-area organiza-
tion formed by DACA youth
last November, also advo-
cates long-term immigration
reform.
DACA recipients are in
the program for two years,
at which point they can seek
to have that status renewed if
they continue to meet the pro-
gram’s criteria.
Activists say there are
about 20,000 recipients of
DACA in the state, and about
800,000 nationally.
The gathering follows a
legislative session that ex-
panded some protections for
undocumented immigrants in
the midst of a national climate
of uncertainty over immigra-
tion policy.
State lawmakers passed
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U.S. Secretary of Ener-
gy Rick Perry was noncom-
mittal Monday when asked
about a proposal in the presi-
dent’s budget to privatize the
Bonneville Power Admin-
istration transmission grid
following a tour of McNary
Dam along the Columbia
River.
Perry, who was joined by
congressmen Greg Walden
(R-Oregon) and Dan New-
house (R-Washington), met
briefly with reporters out-
side the dam where he said
hydroelectricity will con-
tinue to play an important
role in America’s energy
strategy.
The Trump administra-
tion, however, has proposed
selling off transmission as-
sets owned by BPA, which
markets electric power
generated by the Columbia
River system — including
McNary Dam. Northwest
lawmakers have roundly
criticized the plan, saying it
will raise rates for consum-
ers and affect reliability in
rural areas.
In fact, both Walden and
Newhouse signed on to a letter
sent June 5 to Perry and Mick
Mulvaney, director of the
White House Office of Man-
Hydroelectricity
will
play an important role
moving
forward
Perry
said, and he commended
the work done at McNary
Dam.
“My hat’s off to every
different part of this oper-
ation to make sure it runs
smoothly,” he said.
McNary Dam is just the
first stop for Perry as he ar-
rived in northeast Oregon
and southeast Washington.
On Tuesday, he planned
to travel to the Tri-Cities for
a visit to the Pacific North-
west National Laboratory,
HAMMER Federal Training
Center and Hanford Nuclear
Reservation.
Perry said security at Han-
ford is “as good as there is in
the world,” despite a partial
tunnel collapse in May that
contained highly radioactive
waste.
“We never like to have
surprises, but we have them
from time to time to time,” he
said. “The long-term cleanup
of that site is what’s import-
ant. That’s what I wanted to
see.”
While at Hanford, Perry
planned to visit the site’s
Plutonium Finishing Plant,
the 2268 Building, the WTP
facility and the PUREX
tunnels.
He described both Han-
ford and McNary Dam as ex-
amples of American strength
and ingenuity.
“This is a fascinating part
of America’s story,” Perry
said. “There’s extraordinary
history.”
policies expanding healthcare
coverage to all children, in-
cluding undocumented kids,
and mandating insurance and
public health plan coverage
for a range of reproductive
health services, including
abortions, to patients regard-
less of immigration status.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown,
a Democrat, has been a vocal
supporter of these policies.
In February, Brown signed
an executive order her office
characterized as “broadening”
the state’s 30-year-old “sanc-
tuary state” law. Under the
executive order, state agen-
cies cannot use state funds,
resources or personnel “for
the purpose of detecting or
apprehending” people who
are violating federal immigra-
tion laws. State agencies also
cannot restrict services based
on immigration status, unless
required by state or federal
law.
Since 1987, Oregon law
has prohibited state and local
authorities from enforcing
federal immigration law if an
individual’s only violation of
the law is that they are in the
U.S. without legal status.
This session, the legisla-
ture also passed House Bill
3464, which prohibits public
bodies from asking about cit-
izenship status or disclosing
certain information about in-
dividuals, unless the disclo-
sure is required by state or
federal law.
The state’s approach is
not without opponents. State
Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keiz-
er, criticized what she called
“flawed immigration policy
on the state and federal level”
in a Monday statement issued
by a spokesman for the Senate
Republicans.
Several legislators in the
Oregon House of Represen-
tatives. Reps. Greg Barre-
to, R-Cove; Mike Nearman,
R-Independence; and Sal Es-
quivel, R-Medford — have
filed an initiative petition,
IP 22, that would repeal the
state’s sanctuary law.