Bonneville Power Administration’s Energy Market Choice Will Cause Widespread Harm Across the Northwest

Oregon and Washington’s Legislatures both passed laws requiring their energy utilities to achieve 100% renewable power within the next three decades —to combat climate change and reduce harmful air pollution. And both states have made steady progress towards these goals.   

However, one federal agency, the Bonneville Power Administration (“BPA”), has stubbornly wielded its control over federal power and transmission resources to undermine efforts by Oregon and Washington to clean up our power sector—and do so at a low cost.  

BPA owns approximately 70% of the electricity transmission grid in the Pacific Northwest and markets a large amount of power that’s generated from a series of federally owned hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River. The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest and home to endangered salmon populations, which Earthjustice has fought for decades to protect. BPA controls so much of the western grid, and markets so much power that every utility in the Northwest buys power or transmission services from it.  This means that BPA’s decisions have an outsized impact on the cost of electric power, and reliability of electric power in the Northwest. 

BPA’s market choice ignores billions of dollars in potential savings on electric power costs 

In a far-reaching decision to choose one energy market over other options, BPA has again undermined state efforts to reach clean energy goals by making it more difficult and expensive to access low-cost renewable power. On May 9, 2025, BPA issued a policy determination directing the agency to pursue participation in Markets+, a day-ahead energy market based in Arkansas.   

Regional energy markets allow utilities and energy authorities like BPA to buy and sell electricity across a wider area, which can help lower costs for consumers, provide more access to renewable energy sources and ensure a stable and reliable energy supply. For example, by relying on a broad, connected grid, wind farms located in the windiest regions of the West or solar farms sited in sunny areas can easily sell their surplus energy to other areas within the market.  

Choosing an energy market is a big decision for any utility – and for a large power broker like BPA, the effects of choosing the wrong energy market can cascade through dozens of utilities and across multiple states. 

BPA’s choice to join the smaller Markets+ will drive up energy bills for customers, weaken energy grid reliability and reduce access to clean energy.  A larger day-ahead market can provide more electricity to connect across a broader region, more diversity in how that electricity is generated, and greater efficiency in both power generation and transmission. BPA had a better option with a larger Western market, the Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM). Or even doing nothing by not joining a day-ahead market would have been more cost-effective for BPA, compared with joining Markets+ – according to the agency’s own cost studies. However, despite widespread criticism of the move, BPA decided to join Markets+, a small energy market, disconnected from BPA’s traditional trading partners, with less access to low-cost renewable energy generated in California and the desert Southwest. 

BPA’s own analysis showed choosing Markets+ was more expensive for consumers and would drive up costs in the entire Pacific Northwest. An analysis prepared by state agencies in Washington and Oregon using BPA’s data found that joining Markets+ would mean foregoing $4.4 billion in accrued savings on power costs. BPA decided against joining EDAM, the larger Western market–which its own studies showed would save customers and the agency millions of dollars on an annual basis, advance energy reliability, and provide greater access to clean energy sources within and near the eight Western states where BPA sells and transmits electricity if it joined EDAM.   Instead, by joining Markets+, according to BPA’s cost estimates—power costs for its customers and the region will increase by millions of dollars annually. 

Worse yet, BPA’s decision will split the western grid, making it harder and more expensive to transmit power regionally.  Instead of an interconnected unified western grid, BPA’s decision will split the western grid into two energy markets and would create numerous and complex barriers to trading electric power—referred to within the industry as “seams.”  Unlike clothing seams, which connect disjointed pieces of fabric, seams in the electricity grid act as barriers to trading electric power.  While not physical barriers to trade, seams mark the boundaries of energy markets, and trading across seams can be difficult and expensive.  Creating seams is a bad thing, because it makes it more difficult and expensive to transmit power.  A study by the Woods Institute at Stanford found that a two-market scenario that splits the western grid would increase the risk of blackouts during extreme weather events. 

BPA ignores concerns from elected officials and the public 

Many stakeholders in the region, including Oregon and Washington’s four Senators, have expressed concerns over BPA’s decision to join Markets+. In a May 2025 letter to BPA the Senators wrote, “This decision will likely have profound and lasting impacts on the reliability, affordability, and greenhouse gas emissions of electricity used throughout the Pacific Northwest….Between increasing energy demand, increasing strain on ratepayers, and significant resource adequacy constraints in the Northwest, it is paramount that BPA continue to operate according to sound business principles, as required by statute. That includes ensuring there is the opportunity to consider the full range of market structure options before making a long-term commitment on electricity markets.”  Yet, BPA has stubbornly ignored our U.S. Senators, the governors of Oregon and Washington, state energy utility commissions, and the public in reaching its decision. 

Because of these harms, five non-profits, represented by Earthjustice, filed a legal challenge today in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. By suing, the groups aim to hold BPA accountable to its legal responsibilities to supply low-cost, reliable power and to grow renewable energy resources while protecting fish, wildlife and cultural resources.  

BPA’s recalcitrance to advance renewable energy  

BPA has also leveraged its power to undermine efforts to promote renewable energy development in Oregon and Washington in other ways.  In-depth reporting by Oregon Public Broadcasting documents how BPA has used its control of the transmission grid to prevent new solar developments from coming online in Oregon and Washington—by requiring costly upgrades to transmission services before allowing new projects to connect.    

“Of the 469 large renewable projects that applied to connect to BPA’s grid since 2015, only one has reached approval. … No major grid operator is as stingy as BPA in its approach to financing new transmission lines and substations needed to grow the power supply, according to industry groups that represent power producers”   

Recently, BPA has started a new initiative to study how it can improve connectivity to the grid, but it is yet uncertain where this effort will lead. 

It’s time for BPA to be held accountable for its legal responsibilities. Under the NW Power Act, BPA must provide efficient, cost-effective and reliable power to Pacific Northwest customers, promote renewable energy and protect fish and wildlife affected by hydroelectric projects within the Columbia Basin.  

BPA’s decision to join Markets+ fails all these responsibilities – and if not reversed, would cause lasting harm to the region.