Editorial: PUD should fail on Whidbey Island
Published 8:56 am Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Proponents of a Public Utility District to take over the electrical system on Whidbey Island from Puget Sound Energy have failed to prove that such a move would save ratepayers money. Without such certainty it’s too risky to elect a three-person PUD board, go through an expensive and contentious study process, proceed to to court over condemnation issues, and finally sell bonds to buy all of PSE’s facilities on Whidbey Island.
The feisty PUD organizers and their anti-corporate attitude appeals to the populist streak in all of us, particularly with the pending acquisition of PSE by a foreign conglomerate. But common sense tells us that they heyday of PUD’s was long in the past, when the federal government built huge dams on the Columbia River and sold the cheap power to publicly owned entities in order to expand the rural economy. Since then decades have passed and nobody’s getting cheap power anymore. A local PUD would get a price break, but it’s not significant enough to offset the many costs of creating and operating a publicly owned utility.
The PUD effort has not been in vain, however. Puget Sound Energy suddenly got interested in Whidbey Island, opening an office in Freeland that has been closed for years and contributing cash to local organizations. And even if the PUD measure fails, the new corporate owners will know that it could be rekindled at any moment. There is no need now for a PUD, but that could change if PSE or its successor goes back to taking Whidbey Island ratepayers for granted.
