Madam Speaker, as Ranking Republican of the House Natural Resources Committee, I am today introducing legislation to protect American taxpayers and existing customers of the Western Area Power…
Madam Speaker, as Ranking Republican of the House Natural Resources Committee, I am today introducing legislation to protect American taxpayers and existing customers of the Western Area Power Administration, WAPA. It is called the ``The American Taxpayer and Western Area Power Administration Firm Power Customer Protection Act.'' I'm pleased that Tom McClintock, the Ranking Republican on the Water and Power Subcommittee, is joining me in sponsoring this bill.
Earlier this year, the Democrat Majority passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is better known as the stimulus spending bill. Many of the new programs in this law were never debated beforehand and were inserted behind closed doors without transparency or an opportunity for Members of Congress or the American people to review and scrutinize them.
Included among these new programs was WAPA's Transmission Infrastructure Program's borrowing authority. This new $3.25 billion borrowing authority allows the WAPA Administrator to provide loans to develop new transmission aimed solely at integrating renewable energies. As some envisioned, the loans would be mainly given to private wind and solar developers for transmission investments. This new borrowing authority is quite unlike the Bonneville Power Administration's, BPA, longstanding borrowing authority, which can be used for integrating all generation sources, as well as for fish and wildlife mitigation and conservation efforts.
Madam Speaker, there is another key difference between the two borrowing authorities and it's one that my legislation directly addresses: the risk of a bailout funded by American taxpayers. The actual WAPA statute describes it best: ``If, at the end of the useful life of a project, there is a remaining balance owed to the Treasury under this section, the balance shall be forgiven.'' This means that American taxpayers will foot the bill for any outstanding balances on a project that cannot be repaid. This would be similar to a homeowner defaulting on a 30 year loan and having the bank pick up the remaining balance, except that the taxpayer would end up paying for the bad investment. BPA, which proudly boasts about repaying its debts with interest and ahead of schedule, does not have a similar taxpayer bailout provision in its borrowing authority. I might also add that the Tennessee Valley Authority repays its debt with interest as well.
To date, WAPA has announced one project under the borrowing authority: a wind transmission project owned by a Canadian company. Under the taxpayer bailout provision, if this project failed, then the American taxpayer would have to bail out a foreign company for up to $161 million.
It is also important to recognize that some of WAPA's existing customers, who are theoretically not impacted by this program, remain concerned that they will now bear some costs even if they do not benefit due to the lack of defined rules and regulations to govern the borrowing authority. It's critical that the principle of ``beneficiaries pay'' is maintained and not undermined. It is not the responsibility of those who may not benefit from a project, or the federal taxpayers, to fund such projects. Those who build and benefit from a project must bear its full costs.
For these reasons, I am introducing this legislation to amend WAPA's borrowing authority to both add protections for existing customers and to eliminate the taxpayer bailout provisions. I hope for this action on this bill.
