PRESS RELEASE

July 29, 2002

 

The Northwest Power Planning Council’s senior member, John Brogoitti, announced today 

that he is taking a week off from his duties on the Council to confer with agricultural and 

industrial community members concerning representation on behalf of their interests in 

regional policy-making processes carried out by the NWPPC.  

 

This comes on the heels of a recent meeting between Governor John Kitzhaber and

Oregon’s two NWPPC Council members, John Brogoitti and Eric Bloch.  The discussion

at that meeting led Mr. Brogoitti to conclude that the governor’s  position that Oregon

was being unfairly passed over for the chairmanship of the council, possibly because of

its overtly environmental policies, was simply a red herring to divert attention from an

entirely different agenda.  Mr. Brogoitti and Mr. Bloch had recently conducted a press

tour on behalf of the governor to publicize the issue of the chairmanship of the council,

even though  Mr. Brogoitti had advised the governor twice in the past six months that the

council’s vice-chairman, Eric Bloch, had not been considered for the chairmanship by

other council members because of personality conflicts-- not state-related issues.  Then,

at last week’s  meeting with Kitzhaber,  Mr. Brogotti made an offer to the governor to

seek election to the chairmanship of the council on behalf of the State of Oregon.  The

governor rebuffed him, stating that, ”the chairmanship is not the issue.” 

 

If the chairmanship is not the issue, reasons Mr. Brogoitti, then something else must be

the issue.  It doesn’t make sense that the governor would threaten to pull Oregon out of

the regional process that provides funding for dearly-valued fish and wildlife projects just

because of  a minor snafu over the largely symbolic chairmanship of the NWPPC.  Surely

the governor, an ardent environmentalist, would not shoot himself in the foot on such

matters, especially in a cash-strapped economy, unless he had something else in mind.

Brogoitti points out an Oregon Public Broadcasting article published last Tuesday,

wherin there is speculation that  Governor Kitzhaber “appears to be thinking beyond the

council itself.  He may even have plans to replace the council with another governing

body, something that would require an act of Congress.”  

 

A regional body composed of state, federal and tribal representatives, commonly known

as The Columbia River Forum or Three Sovereigns as formerly proposed by Kitzhaber,

was previously shelved for lack of support.  Under the proposal, the three sovereign

governmental entities would establish power, fish and wildlife and environmental policy

without input from regional agricultural and industrial constituents.  Brogoitti sees great

danger in this and is taking action to alert local citizens of the situation.  He is also

considering a change in political party affiliation, from democrat  to republican, in 

order to garner the support necessary to stay on the council and counter any efforts to

convince Congress to change the current system of balancing power generation with fish

and wildlife issues in the Pacific Northwest.  Mr. Brogoitti can be reached for comment

at  541-276-8351.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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