Generating Failure: Public Power Policy in the Northwest

The establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 ushered in a new age for American energy policy in which the federal government supplanted private industry as the primary provider of power for much of the nation. In 1937 the Bonneville Power Administration was established in the Northwest with the mandate of transmitting and marketing power from the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. Eventually BPA became responsible for all federal power facilities in the Northwest. In this book economist David L. Shapiro exposes the policy disasters caused by the public power system. He shows that the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPS, or Whoops) default on $2.25 billion worth of municipal bondsothe largest such default in America’s historyowas due to reckless mismanagement by BPA. He also demonstrates how political maneuvering continues to jeopardize the stability of the power industry. Shapiro charges that BPA is a prime example of a federal agency that has grossly exceeded its initial charter and pursued an independent course at the expense of taxpayers and the constituents it was intended to serve. His solution is to privatize the agency and restore the responsibility of energy provision in the Northwestoand throughout the nationoto the private sector. Co-published with the Cato Institute.