Trump administration proposing privatizing 50% of county's hydro

We got Russian investigations and failure to repeal the ACA but while all that is going on the Trump administration is proposing selling off public power companies to private investors.

From the link:
Now, the Trump administration has proposed rethinking the entire system, with a plan to sell the transmission network of wires and substations owned by the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency that distributes most of the Columbia basin’s output, to private buyers.

The idea is part of a package of proposals that would transform much of the infrastructure in the United States to a mixture of public and private partnerships, lowering costs to taxpayers and improving efficiency, administration officials said. Assets of two other big public power operators, based in Colorado and Oklahoma, would be sold, too, if Congress approves the measure.

Debates about government and its role in land and environmental policy are always highly charged. But perhaps nowhere could the proposed changes have a more significant impact than along the great river of the West — fourth largest by volume in North America, more than 10 times that of the Hudson. Privatization would transform a government service that requires equal standards across a vast territory — from large cities to tiny hamlets — into a private operation seeking maximum returns to investors.

You wonder why a lot of GOP legislators are tolerating the Trump shit storm? Because there are very wealthy investors who are telling them to stand pat until efforts like this are completed.


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/28/us/columbia-river-privatization.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0