INSIDE

How much do you want to pay for power?

Senator Maria Cantwell has started an online petition to send a message to the White House that the northwest doesn’t want to pay more for power.

According to Cantwell’s office President George W. Bush is proposing, in his administrations budget for 2006, that wholesale power rates charged by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) go up to match the rates of other national power markets, usually double the BPA’s cost-based rates.

“A billion dollar rate hike is a one, two punch on our consumers and our region’s economy,” said Cantwell. “Hiking power rates by 20 percent a year is exactly opposite of what our region needs. The Bush administration needs to hear our voices in the northwest and know that we won’t sit in silence.”

Cantwell is joined by Senator Patty Murray urging residents and businesses in the state to make themselves heard. “A 20 percent increase in the cost of heating our homes and powering our businesses would cripple our region’s economy,” she said.

Cantwell’s petition is available online at http://cantwell.senate.gov.