A major part of my obligation as a Lewis County Public Utility District commissioner is to protect ratepayers from unnecessary electric rate increases.
All our ratepayers need to be aware of the attempt by Rep. Peter Abbarno and Economic Alliance Executive Director Richard DeBolt to give an Australian company a hydrogen production plant costing up to a billion taxpayer dollars together with the right to purchase an enormous amount of our limited supply of hydroelectric power. The only replacement of this power will be far more costly and that cost will be paid directly by our ratepayers.
Why anyone would support the gift of a taxpayer funded plant to an Australian company using our limited supply of hydroelectric power makes no sense to me other than if someone somewhere is making a killing at our expense.
The cold truth is that hydrogen is not a competitive fuel in the United States. It might be competitive in Australia or Asia, particularly if a company could convince American taxpayers to give it a plant together with access to low-cost hydroelectric power.
Rep. Abbarno and Alliance Director DeBolt apparently think they can pull this off for Fortescue.
We do know that our Economic Alliance has been paid by Fortescue. We don't know whether others have a financial interest in Fortescue or TransAlta.
The Economic Alliance claims to be exempt from disclosing information regarding its sources of income or investments of its directors or employees. Isn't it time for the Alliance to open its books and require the disclosure of financial interests by its directors and employees?
For decades, Lewis County ratepayers have benefitted from low electric rates because of access to hydroelectric power from the federal dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Why would we give this away? The proposed plant will only produce a handful of jobs, consume much more energy than it produces and no longer provides tax revenue comparable to what was paid by the steam plant. The state Legislature just changed how taxes from the hydrogen plant will be distributed. More money goes to the state and less to us. As the old saying goes, Fortescue gets the mine, the state gets more tax money, and we taxpayers and ratepayers get the shaft.
If you don't want your electric rates to increase unnecessarily, contact Rep. Abbarno and contact the Alliance. Tell them they've been caught.
Mike Hadaller
Lewis County PUD commissioner
