Bonneville's response to Council request for FY 2003 fish and wildlife
spending figures:
Additional material
[BPA letterhead; see links to attachments (PDF format) throughout]
January 23, 2003
Ms. Judi Danielson, Chair
Northwest Power and Conservation Council
Dear Ms. Danielson:
During the course of the January 2003, Northwest Power and Conservation
Council (Council) meeting as well as in subsequent discussions with
Council members it was clear that some additional information from
Bonneville, that was not identified in the December 23, 2002 information
request from Doug Marker to Sarah McNary, would be important to the
Council's deliberations in moving forward with reprioritization of the
Integrated Program. The first area is a brief summary of Bonneville's
key principles in approaching a change to our current capitalization
policy. This is provided as Attachment
1 (10k PDF).
The second is a project level identification of critical elements to
satisfy Bonneville's responsibilities under the 2000 Federal Columbia
River Power System (FCRPS) Biological Opinions. During the Council's
January Fish and Wildlife Subcommittee meeting Bonneville presented a
paper describing in detail the critical elements necessary to meet the
Agency's responsibilities under the 2000 FCRPS Biological
Opinions. This paper was distributed to the full Council the
following day. After setting out these critical elements an
important next step was the identification of projects associated with the
critical elements. This is provided as Attachments
2A (10k PDF) and 2B
(90k PDF) together with a preliminary estimate of
associated accruals Attachment 2C (40k
PDF).
The third area is to address the issue of equity in treatment that the
Council members have expressed is important to their considerations.
Bonneville feels that we have treated all program areas equitably in our
requests for cost reductions. Specifically we have asked all program
areas to evaluate whether efficiencies and associated cost reductions
could be found while still achieving their core objectives. Attachment
3 (115k PDF) is an addition to the
chart of expense reductions, deferrals, other actions presented by Paul
Norman at the January Council meeting. After Paul Norman's
presentation, several Council members requested that the expense
reductions that were presented be put in the context of each program's
overall budget. The chart has been updated to include the percent of
reduction relative to the relevant program's August 2002 forecast.
I want to emphasize Bonneville's appreciation for the Council's
efforts in performing this challenging task of leading the
reprioritization process for the Integrated Program. We are eager to
work with you as a partner in this process and hope that the additional
information provided with this letter will be of assistance.
Sincerely,
/s/ Therese B. Lamb
Acting Vice President
Environment, Fish and Wildlife |
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