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Power Rate Increase Becomes Issue in Oregon Governor's Race by Editorial Board Bend Bulletin, September 29, 2026

Today, Bonneville has sufficient resources to meet
our needs, but that may not always be the case.

Wherever you get your electricity from -- and especially if you get it from Central Electric Cooperative -- you may want to watch what happens to the rates of the Bonneville Power Administration.

CEC members may see an increase of power costs about 3% due to increases in charges from BPA, The Bulletin's Michael Kohn reported recently. That potential increase would come on top of a roughly 19% increase in BPA power and transmission costs added in October 2025. Central Electric, a nonprofit, member-owned utility, gets nearly all of its wholesale electricity from the BPA dams.

Why are its rates going up?

It's basically after a lawsuit from the states of Oregon and Washington, a conservation group and tribes. A federal judge ordered BPA to spill more water over its dams to protect salmon. That means less water available for power generation and increased costs for BPA. BPA may raise its wholesale rates by 6.3% to recover an additional $250 million in costs.

"You most likely don't think about the dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers when you flip on a light switch," Central Electric Cooperative President and CEO Brad Wilson, wrote recently. "When BPA's costs increase due to operational changes ordered through litigation, those costs ultimately are passed on to you."

BPA will hold a rate hearing before it changes its rates. BPA held a scheduling meeting on Monday and a prehearing conference is scheduled for Oct. 5. A decision will likely be reached by the end of the year.

Christine Drazan, the Republican candidate for governor, has made the possible rate increase a campaign issue, calling out Democrat Tina Kotek for "abysmal leadership" leading to an increase in rates for Oregonians that rely on BPA power.

Gov. Kotek has pushed back. She blamed the Trump administration for Oregon's participation in the lawsuit, saying the Trump administration pulled out of a restoration agreement to protect salmon. "We want affordable, clean energy and we want to protect the salmon runs that feed our rural economies," Kotek wrote in a letter to businesses and utilities.

Protecting fish and providing power are both possible. Shifting the balance in either direction has tradeoffs.