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History 101: FDR vs Musk [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-19
In 1937 Congress created the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) as a federally owned utility which would generate and provide electricity throughout the Pacific Northwest. The BPA, unlike investor-owned utilities, does not make a profit from selling its electricity. That means that consumers get lower rates. It is not funded through taxes but by ratepayers.
Today, about one-third of the power consumed in the Pacific Northwest comes from BPA. According to the BPA:
“BPA pays its way by selling power, transmission and related services. BPA receives no tax revenues or appropriations. Your electricity bill, not your taxes, pays BPA's costs. This financial responsibility ties BPA to the people it serves in the Northwest. BPA sells power at cost, providing a benchmark that helps keep rates low to consumers. Low-cost, renewable Columbia River hydropower is a cornerstone of the Northwest economy. Today, nearly 3 million people and more than 1.2 million jobs depend on BPA power.”
At the completion of Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, President Franklin Rosevelt told the crowd:
“Some of my friends who talk glibly of the right of any individual to do anything he wants with any of his property take the point of view that it is not the concern of Federal or state or local government to interfere with what they miscall "the liberty of the individual." With them I do not agree and never have agreed because, unlike them, I am thinking of the future of the United States. My conception of liberty does not permit an individual citizen or group of citizens to commit acts of depredation against nature in such a way as to harm their neighbors, and especially to harm the future generations of Americans.”
The current regime, however, has a different view of America, one that seems hellbent on destroying the economy, harming as many Americans as possible, and enriching those who are already rich. In the past week, Elon Musk fired 600 BPA employees. These are the operators, engineers, and dispatchers: people who make it possible for the BPA to provide electricity to its customers. The terminations, according to former BPA administrators: “…will seriously degrade BPA’s ability to maintain reliable power service.”
This doesn’t appear to be an action which will save money or improve efficiency. It seems like an action which will cost people money and decrease efficiency.
Thanks to Monica Tranel from Montana Connections for inspiring this short essay.
Indians: It should be noted that the Bonneville Dam and other dams along the Columbia River destroyed traditional American Indian villages, fishing sites, cultural heritage sites, and archaeological sites. Treaty rights were ignored and promises made to the Indians were not kept.
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