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<br />page 5 WRW washn x x x time
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<br />
<br />NRECA MEMBERS SWARM OVER CAPITOL HILL THIS WEEK
<br />Washington (WRW)--Four thousand members of the National Rural
<br />Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) swarmed over Capitol Hill
<br />here this week buttonholding Congressmen asking them to oppose
<br />proposals to cut back on rural electric loans and to speed up
<br />repayment of the federal investment in the federal power grid.
<br />The odds are heavily stacked against many of the proposals that
<br />these 4,000 rural electric leaders oppose. So why the en masse
<br />assault on Capitol Hill? Western Resources Wrap-up (WRW) asked Carl
<br />M. Turner, long-time top honcho of the New Mexico Rural Electrifica-
<br />tion Assn., of Santa Fe. "Bob Bergland is firing up his troops,"
<br />Turner replied. A former Congressman from Minnesota and a former
<br />Secretary of Agriculture in the Carter Administration, Bergland is
<br />NRECA's executive vice president.
<br />The top item on the NRECA legislative agenda was to stop an
<br />Administration proposal providing for power marketing agency (PMA)
<br />repayment reform by requiring speed up of repayment by consumers
<br />thru straight-line amortization ie., payback of the same amount each
<br />year. NRECA also claims it provides for the eventual sale of the
<br />federal power marketing agencies in the Department of Energy (DOE)
<br />altho the Administration's 1988 budget recommended a study of the
<br />sale of only one power marketing agency, the Southeastern Power
<br />Administration (SEPA). House BUdget Resolution (H. Con. Res. 93),
<br />which passed the House on April 9, carried no straight-line
<br />amortization provision, but the Senate Budget Resolution (S. Con.
<br />Res. 49) currently before the Senate provides for straight-line
<br />amortization beginning in 1989, at an annual cost of $438 million to
<br />federal power consumers, according to NRECA.
<br />Tables worked out by the PMA's, mainly by the Bonneville Power
<br />Administration (BPA), provided to WRW on April 27 indicated the
<br />straight-line amortization proposal of the Administration would cost
<br />public power consumers, mostly in the West, about $892,440,000 in
<br />the fiscal years 1989 thru 1992. The breakdown is as follows: BPA,
<br />$691.5 million~ Western Area power Administration (WAPA), $107.5
<br />million ~ Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA), $51,205, 000 ~
<br />SEPA, $39,498,000~ and Alaska Power Administration (APA), $2,741,
<br />000. Thomas P. Graves of the Mid-West Electric Consumers Assn., of
<br />Denver, told WRW power users in the pick-Sloan Missouri Basin
<br />project would face a 55-58 percent increase in repayments in 1989.
<br />NRECA is lobbying to keep rural electric loans at current
<br />levels, stop Administration proposals which NRECA claims would
<br />dismantle REA, and allow rural electric and telephone borrowers to
<br />prepay and refinance their long-term high interest loans. It is also
<br />pushing legislation to ease the problems of "captive shippers," ie.,
<br />mainly grain farmers who must rely on one railroad.
<br />And NRECA says, "We should explore federal legislation, if
<br />necessary, to correct the growing problem" of taxation of rights-of
<br />way on Indian reservations. Turner told WRW many rights-of-way are
<br />coming up for renewal, and rural coops are concerned about heavy new
<br />right-of-way charges that they expect to be levied by Indian tribes
<br />on rural co-op installations in Indian country. -30-HCM-
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<br />End of Document
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