Page 8 RAIN January 1981 .Power Play cont. The Collapse and the Vision I~ didn't last. For one thing, utilities had little interest in providing power to the 35% or so of the population that still lived in mral areas. In the few areas ou,tside of cities w,here power was available, it was incredibly expensive. As a result; by 1932 only one rural home in ten had electricity, compared to over 70% of the homes in urb~n and suburban_areas. Utilities rapidly became a moving target for the agrarian reform movement that was sweeping the country during the '20s. Opposition to the power trust intensified as the nature and extent of utility concentration became clearer. In 1928, • the U.S. Congress began an eight..:year investigation of the financial practic_es and propaganda campaign of the power trust. President Hoover's attempts to impede the investigation raised a storm of controversy that was partially responsible for his defeat. The nationwide economic collapse that was the ~ain reason fo~Hoover's Aluminum production from bauxite is one of the most energy-intensive . · ind,ustrial processes known, requiring 12 tim~s as much energy as primary iron production ... much of that' • energy has·to be electricity. I defeat sent a shock wave through the financially overextended utility combines. Insull's empire collapsed, and insull fled the country to avoid prosecution, Franklin Roosevelt, hardly a radical, was elected on a platform that included a strong commitment to the breakup of the utility trust and establishment of a decentralized, consumer owned power grid. The power trust pushed electricity as the ultimate slave. But for many public power adyocates, the vision went far beyond: Decentralization, if and when it takes place, will break up the great conglomerations of people in sprawling, dirty, noisy sl!'ms and -brutalizing sweatshops, lift the swarming hordes out of te7:ements and sub.ways and streetcars, and put them back on the land. Electric power, a vast unseen ocean of electric power that will run'factory machines, light the countryside and bring relief from drudgery to the homes on the land, is for Roosevelt the seemingly ,certain instrument of this decentralization. It will transport people to • places where they can work naturally, live decen.tly, breathe-deeply and see the open sky. • .The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) was part of that vision. As a result of the intense furor.surrounding the formation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, BPA was somewhat weaker than its eastern counterpart. BPA was set up primarily as a power marketing and transmission agent for power generat~d .by ·the huge Federal dams being built on the Columbia, and was specifically forbidden to operate or invest in generating facilities of its own. Even so, its mandate was a giant step towards sodalism. BPA was actively involved in the push for public power in the Northwest, aiding in the takeover of private utilities and the formation of locally controlled public utility districts. _The resurgence of public power was particularly strong in Washington, a state with.a long history of progressive movements. A powerful coalition of union and rural groups pushed through legis- .lation making Washington one of the easiest places in the country to for,m a PUD. In Seatde, the municipal light company,finally took over the private utility it had been undercutting for years. IQUs had a firmer grip on Oregon and Idaho, which made formation of PUDs in those states considerably more difficult. Even there, however, a considerable number of PUDs were started, and the trend was clear. Public powerwas firmly established in the Northwest, with BPA giving first priority,to PUDs oper~ting on a strictly nonprofit basis, The Rise of the Rogues' Gallery The IOUs fought Roosevelt tooth and nail, blocking;legislation at every turn and issuing frantic warnings on the evils of,government interference. Their opportunity came when the United State.s began mobilizing for its eventual entry into World War II. In -order to maximize industrial efficiency; it was necessary for utilities to coordinate'and centralize their generating capacity to allow the power to be moved to where it was most needed. The nation's IOUs informed Roosevelt that they would not cooperate unless the Federal government backed off on its efforts to break up the utilities. Roosevelt was forced to concede. The public power movement was throttled as • the BPA changed its focus, becoming the backb·one of the regional transmission grid for the_wai effort, working closely with IOUs for the.fir~t time, and establishing a trend towards centralization of the. regional power system that has continued for 40 years: ( World War II irrevocably changed the face of the Pacific Northwest·. Its strategic position ~n-the Pacific Rim, ,ombined with an enormous surplus of cheap'hydroelectricity, made the Northwe3't an excellent location for tnany of the nation's war industries, particularly the aluminum industry. . , Aluminum production from bauxite is one·of the most energy intensive industrial processes known, requiring 12 times as much r • . •1J,..,J By the 1950s, ·the BPA had ahandoned its pub-/ic power mandate and was beginning to.build itself ~n empire. , . . . energy as primary iron production. Hecause the final separatfon of aluminum is an electrochemical process, much of that energy has to be electricity. Alcoa, the nation's one aluminum company (aluminum remains one of the most concentrated industries in the world), and the U.S..government built 5 smelters in the Northwest during the war. When the war ended, the government sold their plants to Reynolds Tobacco and Kaiser Chemic:al corporations, instantly creating an industry that today produces one-third of the aluminum in the country and gobbles up a quarter of the1region's electricity. The industrialization and massive population growth of World ~ War II continued into the '50s. With plenty of cheap hydro power for public and private utilities alike, the Northwest rapidlybecame one of the most electricity dependent areas in the world, with demand doubling every 10 years. By this time, the BPAhad abandoned its public power mandate, seeing itself more as a central authority for the region's utilities and actively promoting the • continued growth of energy intensive industry. BPAiWas·beginning to build itself an empire. A seemingly innocuous event occured in the late '50s that would later have an enormous impact on the region. BecausePUDs operated on a non-profit basis and got most of their power from dams owned by the U.S. government, most of them had no capital and , very little collateral for building power facilities of their own. In 1957, 21 Washington public utilities formed the Washington Public '
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz