The Washington Attorney General’s Office says a plan by the Bonneville Power Administration to change how it calculates how much money it allocates to those getting their power from private utilities will unnecessarily raise rates, including for some in the Mid-Columbia. 

State justice officials recently filed an amicus brief opposing the BPA’s plan to change to the formula used to calculate the funds allocated through a federal program. Those changes would reduce the benefit private utility customers receive from the federal power provider, hitting them with higher energy costs when many are struggling to make ends meet. 

“Many private utility customers are already facing significant increases to their electric bills, which we are fighting to prevent,” Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. “The last thing customers need right now is the threat of yet another increase in prices.” 

The program in question, the Residential Exchange Program, was created in the early 1980s to reduce utility rates for private utility customers because they were paying significantly more than the customers of publicly-owned utilities. 

More than 1.5 million Washingtonians currently receive electric service through Avista, PacifiCorp and Puget Sound Energy, and would see their electric bills go up under BPA’s proposal. While BPA won’t reveal the exact rate increase until 2028, it could increase customers’ bills by as much as 4%. PacifiCorp currently supplies power to 137,000 customers in Walla Walla and Yakima counties and communities surrounding them, including some in Benton County. 

The attorney general’s office is also fighting various efforts by those three utilities that they say will also raise customer rates. PSE has proposed increasing customers’ electricity rates by 29% over the next three years. Avista has proposed to increase electricity rates by 25% over the next four years. The attorney general is also opposing the sale of PacifiCorp’s Washington service area to Portland General Electric. 

Go to: agportal-s3bucket.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Consumer%20Protection/2026_09_28AmicusFinal.pdf