The Bonneville Power Administration’s first quarter financial forecast shows mixed results for the agency’s expected end-of-year performance.
John Hairston, who has served as administrator and chief executive officer of the Bonneville Power Administration since January 2021, is announcing his retirement from federal service. He’s headed to the Eugene Electric and Water Board as its new general manager.
A proposed clean energy pump storage generating project near the John Day Dam on the Columbia River cleared another hurdle last week when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued the project a 40-year operating license, despite opposition by the Yakama Nation and environmental groups.
In a strongly-worded rebuttal to a December motion to dismiss by federal defendants in U.S. District Court, plaintiffs challenging the operation and maintenance of the Columbia/Snake river hydroelectric system of dams questioned why, after 24 years and eight complaints since 2001, that the federal government is now moving to dismiss the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
An environmental review of a nearly 80-mile high voltage transmission line that would be buried in the bed of the Columbia River from The Dalles to Portland was set in motion earlier this month with a public comment period that ends Feb. 4.
The Bonneville Power Administration has executed new long-term wholesale electric power contracts with more than 130 Northwest public utility customers this fall.
Slightly more spill, restrictions on flow fluctuations at federal Columbia and Snake River dams, more habitat projects, along with more predator management of sea lions, sea birds and fish are among changes the Northwest Power and Conservation Council is proposing as amendments to its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.
In a continuing disagreement between the Yakama Nation and the Bonneville Power Administration over the expiration of the Columbia Basin Fish Accords and carryover funds, the power agency says it had hoped to continue talks that would extend some form of the Accords long-term.
The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation publicly took a step this week towards recovering $50 million in Columbia Basin Fish Accord funds from the Bonneville Power Administration after the federal power marketing agency had allowed the Accords to expire at the end of September.
The Bonneville Power Administration allowed the long-running Columbia Basin Fish Accords with tribes and states to expire Sept. 30, 2025 and it’s unclear if future agreements that would benefit salmon and steelhead recovery in the basin will materialize. Although BPA says it is open to discuss future Accords agreements with tribes, so far that has been more aspirational than substantive, at least according to one tribe.
Details of the proposal for a 100-mile high tension power line that would be laid beneath the Columbia River, rather than travel over land, was aired last week by developers of the project in three public meetings.
A draft evaluation of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Willamette River basin dams that includes analyses of a deeper drawdown at Detroit Dam and a cessation of hydropower is up for public review. However, in the draft the Corps’ preferred alternative maintains hydropower at the dams.
The Bonneville Power Administration shared its end-of-year financial performance results for fiscal year 2025 at its Nov. 13 Quarterly Business Review, saying it had hit all financial targets.
What if solar power production could be developed in ways that coexist with existing farms, orchards and ranches? A new state-funded report, co-authored by Washington State University researchers, evaluates the feasibility of such an approach, known as “agrivoltaics.” Researchers found that it could work across tens of thousands of acres of Washington farmland — producing power, offering shade to protect certain crops and livestock, and keeping agricultural land in operation.
A large habitat restoration effort is set to begin this fall on northern Idaho’s Pack River delta, continuing work to improve fish and wildlife habitat in Lake Pend Oreille. Construction on the third phase of the project will begin late this month or early next month, just east of the area locals refer to as Mud Lake.
On Sept. 30, the Bonneville Power Administration made its annual payment to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for the 42nd consecutive year on time and in full, bringing cumulative payments to approximately $36.6 billion since 1984. The total payment for fiscal year 2025 was $1.2 billion.
Adult sockeye salmon migrating to Canada’s Okanagan River Basin will have a better chance to survive and spawn during drought years following a successful, “trap-and-haul” pilot project carried out July 16, 2025 by Grant PUD, Chelan PUD and Canada’s Okanagan Nation Alliance with ample support from agencies on both sides of the border.
A team of scientists has proposed additional guiding principles and performance measures -- based on the full lifecycles of salmon and steelhead -- that they believe will help with Columbia River estuary restoration.
In a draft report, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council says since the Northwest Power Act in 1980 its energy efficiency programs have saved some 8,000 average megawatts, enough to power seven cities the size of Seattle, while saving energy consumers some $5 billion in lower utility bills.
Predation by sea birds on salmon and steelhead smolts in some years is responsible for as much as 50 percent of all smolt mortalities during the outmigration to the sea from the Columbia and Snake river basins, according to a presentation this week at a meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
At July’s Northwest Power and Council meeting in Portland, staff from the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee discussed a new 10-year outlook they’ve produced showing regional utilities’ forecasted electricity demand and planned resources.
The Bonneville Power Administration says its third quarter financial report indicates the agency’s fiscal position remains positive. Despite seeing some decline in positive net revenues and end-of-year days cash on hand since the second quarter forecast, the agency “continues to see encouraging key performance indicators for its finances.”
A major installation project is underway at Montana’s Libby Dam to add flexibility to project operations and improve the dam’s overall electrical reliability.
The Bonneville Power Administration say it is “strategically raising power and transmission rates to meet customer needs and support national priorities for more abundant, reliable and secure energy.”
Northwest nonprofits have challenged in federal court the Bonneville Power Administration’s decision to join a Southeast power market and sell Northwest hydropower to customers as far away as Louisiana, saying the change would result in higher energy bills, higher transmission costs, reduced access to renewable energy and threaten the agency’s commitment to salmon and steelhead recovery.
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