Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative v. Dept. of Energy

A. Introduction

At their origins during the New Deal, the Bonneville Project’s hydroelectric operations in the Pacific Northwest, administered by the Bonneville Power Administration (“BPA”), were promoted as spreading the benefits of affordable federal power widely, to “the farmer and the factory, and all of you and me.” At the same time, the Project gave a vital boost to the aluminum industry of the Pacific Northwest. Indeed, in the early days of the Project, what was good for BPA was good for the aluminum industry, and what was good for the aluminum industry was good for BPA. Aluminum manufacturers received low-cost federal hydroelectric power to operate energy-intensive smelting operations in the Pacific Northwest, and BPA gained a reliable market for a supply of electric power that otherwise greatly exceeded demand in a region where rural electrification was still a work in progress. See H.R.Rep. No. 96-976, pt. 2, at 27 (1980), as reprinted in 1980 U.S.C.C.A.N. 6023.

BPA’s synergistic relations with the aluminum industry during this early period were widely seen as a public good. The aluminum manufacturers and the region’s nascent aviation industry, which they supplied, not…