Montgomery Water & Light issued the following statement regarding recent proposals to privatize federal transmission assets.
“The proposal to sell federal transmission assets would jeopardize affordable and reliable power for more than 100 million people across the nation,” said Jordan Wilson, Director of Media Relations. “More than 2,000 public power organizations rely on Federal Power Association for access to low-cost, hydroelectric power. Selling these federal transmission assets to for-profit companies will inevitably increase costs for co-op members. Raising electricity prices on rural Americans to send more money to Washington has been a bad idea each and every time it has been proposed. Today is no different.”
The Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) market hydroelectric power from projects operated by the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Publicly owned PMA assets pay for themselves. Appropriations for the federal power program are repaid with interest to the U.S. Treasury by federal power customers.