After fussing about cutting staffing at the Bonneville Power Department, the Trump administration is trying to rehire a handful of staff members that they laid off last week.
Bonneville, a federal agency funded by fee payers on behalf of Congress, has seen more than 400 of its 3,100 employees accept shopping, retire early and lose jobs. Ta. Offer Or, like the Trump administration has, they’ll be fired in the past few weeks I tried To significantly reduce federal workers.
Approximately 125 staff members have been postponed resignation option It was provided by email last month, said Scott Sims, executive director of Public Power Council. I’ll express it Consumer-owned utilities in the area. Another 105 employees notified early on their retirement, and 90 people who had started their jobs were quickly revoked their offers.
Bonneville, which owns three-quarters of the Pacific Northwest’s electric transmission grid, has employed around 400 “probation” employees in the past year and between 125 and 200. I received a notice of closing last week. A rough number from multiple sources.
BPA’s The laidback employees include electricians. Line WorkerCybersecurity experts and engineers, according to the office of U.S. Senator Pati Murray, Washington.
US Congressman Dan Newhouse On Tuesday, he told the Trump administration “There should be a more subtle approach to ending and Farrow.” He mentioned Bonneville Cut, the Hanford Nuclear Cleanup Site and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
“There is concern that the unintended consequences of these workforce reductions will have long-term implications,” Newhouse continued. “I agree that we need to reduce federal workforce and related spending, but we need to ensure that we need to maintain a critical position in public safety, energy and research.”
A Newhouse spokesman said his office is trying to get the exact number of employees affected from Bonneville. Before President Donald Trump took office last month, Senators Newhouse and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Democrat I’ll express it A district in southwestern Washington proposed the law Addresses existing employment and retention issues in Bonneville.
Sims said reforms in the Trump administration will make it even more difficult to attract workers.
Bonneville’s thousands of miles of high voltage transmission lines and 31 hydroelectric dams provide power to Washington, Oregon, Montana and more. Washington State Customers Includes Snohomish County Public Interest District in Tacoma Public Utilities and Pudo in Clark County.
Two former Bonneville administrators wrote in a letter after news of the layoffs broke The reduction in personnel “will seriously break down BPA’s ability to maintain reliable power services.”
“Normally, BPA power is delivered with a stop chance of less than 1 percent,” writes former CEOs Steve Wright and Randy Hardy. “These changes dramatically increase that odds.”
In light of This news, Sims proposed a new mutual aid agreement between Bonneville and local utilities. They do Used during large outages due to storms or extreme heat.
BPA usually handles the repair itself, which allows the agency to work with local workers to make corrections before the customer loses it. This could help fill the gap in the service created by Bonneville’s loss of a chunk of staff, Sims said.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order entitled “Unleashing America’s Energy” in the hopes of improving the reliability of the country’s energy supply. Sims said Bonneville is well suited to help the administration’s goals.
Earlier in Trump’s first term, he proposed selling the transmission grid in Bonneville and privatizing the agency. It argued that the proposal would certainly raise consumer costs.
The Bonneville layoff was one of 1,800 employees. Let go Throughout the Department of Energy, Murray said over the weekend.
This story has been reissued from Washington State Standardsa non-profit, non-partisan news outlet that provides original reports, analysis and commentary on the Washington state government and politics.
