Northwest Energy Review Transition Board	John Etchart, Montana
851 S.W. Sixth Avenue, Suite 1100 Portland, Oregon 97204-1348	Roy Hemmingway, Oregon
Phone 503-222-5161 or 1-800-452-5161 FAX 503-795-3370	Mike Kreidler, Washington
	Todd Maddock, Idaho

Transition Board Transmission Work Group

Meeting 20
March 17, 1998

Al Wright chaired the meeting of the Transmission Work Group at the Northwest Power Planning Council’s offices in Portland. About 25 people attended the meeting.

Al opened the meeting by running through a list of the issues related to FERC regulation of Bonneville and the alternatives discussed at small group meetings on March 13 and the morning of March 17. The list proposed some choices that seemed to be potential consensus (or acceptable compromise) positions. We spent some time trying to resolve the relative roles of BPA and FERC. Michael Early, on behalf of some of the DSIs, questioned whether we should change those roles from their current status. Others cited the Comprehensive Review’s recommendation that Bonneville be brought under FERC regulation "equivalent" to that of the investor-owned utilities, and asserted that the status quo was not an acceptable outcome.

Paul Majkut took the group through a list of Bonneville’s proposed exceptions to Federal Power Act provisions. Some of the proposed exceptions were non-controversial, such as holding hearings in the region, while others such as reserving discretion to the BPA Administrator generated more discussion.

Transition Board staff will be working on a strawman proposal for the "Northwest chapter’s" treatment of FERC regulation.