Chaos over the Trump administration’s firing of federal government workers has even permeated a little-known agency at the center of the Pacific Northwest’s largest source of electricity.
This is already a challenging time for the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets power from Columbia Basin hydropower dams to utilities responsible for powering homes, apartment buildings, businesses, schools and hospitals.
Energy demand is skyrocketing. Utilities are scrambling to transition away from fossil fuels and climate change is altering every aspect of the equation.
And now the Trump administration has forced hundreds of people out at Bonneville, thrusting the hydropower giant into a rut of uncertainty.
Blackouts and rate increases are now on the table, insiders say. Major transmission projects could take twice as long to finish, throwing a wrench into the region’s plans to transition toward renewable energy.
A hiring freeze across the federal government forced the administration to rescind about 90 job offers meant to backfill empty positions. Another 130 probationary employees (which can include recently promoted workers) were fired and more than 200 others decided to retire, including those swayed by the now-infamous “fork in the road” payout offers.
Apparently many of those firings were indiscriminate and poorly planned, Hardy said, because federal officials had to offer jobs back to about 30 employees that had been fired.
Posted by John3262005
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I’m sure there’s some legal barriers to it, but it really would make far more sense to transition BPA to a not-for-profit structure jointly owned by WA, OR, and ID. There’s so many federal things in the West that are only federal because they cross state lines, even though 90% of states have absolutely nothing to do with them.