Washington Public Utility Districts' Association records, 1924-1992

The Washington Public Utility Districts' Association has long been the political and research arm of public utility districts (PUDs). The group formed in 1936 as the Washington Public Utility Commissioners' Association. It was the first association of public utilities in the United States. The Association originally spent most of its time doing research and assisting political campaigns to create PUDs and get them running. It also coordinated successful fights against two initiatives (Initiative 139 in 1940 and Initiative 166 in 1946) designed to make it more difficult for PUDs to buy property.

PUDs could be created by a county-wide vote, but they came into existence without property. PUDs could acquire the property of private power companies in two ways--through a negotiated sale or through a condemnation suit, a procedure that forced the company to sell its assets to the PUD at what the county court determined to be a fair price. Some advocates of public power favored condemnation, while others thought negotiated sale was the only ethical way to put a PUD in business. This difference of opinion nearly split the Public Utility Commissioners' Association. Association President Harry Pierson was forced to resign in 1942 after he took a trip to the East Coast funded by investment bankers who favored the negotiated purchase strategy. The Association then fell under the control of the Washington Public Ownership League (WPOL). WPOL sponsored Initiative 12 to expedite the condemnation process by allowing many PUDs to join together and condemn an entire company in a single suit. This measure passed the state legislature in 1943, but private power firms collected enough signatures to hold a referendum (Referendum 25) on the law in 1944. The divisions in the public power movement contributed to the narrow defeat of the measure. WPOL further frustrated its critics by endorsing a socialist candidate for state senate and using the Commissioners' Association office as his campaign headquarters. WPOL's control ended in 1947, when the Association elected its leaders from the ranks of the avowedly anti-socialist Public Power League of Washington

Ken Billington, former head of the Public Power League of Washington, was elected Executive Secretary of the Commissioners' Association in 1951. Billington changed the name of the group to the Washington Public Utility Districts' Association (WAPUDA). Since most PUDs had already bought out private power companies and begun selling electricity, Billington redefined the mission of the organization. Instead of concentrating on getting fledgling PUDs into business, WAPUDA began to focus on doing research and lobbying on the problems ofPUDs already in operation. Under Billington's tenure, WAPUDA helped PUDs band together to purchase insurance at low rates and to conduct joint labor negotiations.

WAPUDA was a major player in all the big public vs. private power conflicts in the Pacific Northwest. It endorsed the creation of a Columbia Valley Authority and the building of additional federal dams, such as John Day and Ice Harbor. WAPUDA led the failed effort to convince Congress to authorize a federal Hells Canyon High Dam. WAPUDA successfully lobbied the Federal Power Commission (FPC) to allow PUDs to build their own dams. In the 1960s W APUDA derailed the proposed Columbia River Interstate Treaty, which would have weakened the law that gave public utilities preference in the allocation of power from federal dams. WAPUDA instead supported the legislation that became the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act of 1980. This law renewed PUDs' contracts with the Bonneville Power Administration (BP A) and reinforced public utilities' preferential rights to federal power. The law also created the Pacific Northwest Power Planning Council and mandated conservation as the preferred way of meeting the region's future power needs.

WAPUDA was also the driving force behind the creation of the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS). WPPSS was designed to build power plants that individual PUDs could not afford on their own. W APUDA convinced the Washington Department of Conservation and Development to charter WPPSS in 1957. In 1966 WAPUDA got approval for its plan to turn one of Hanford's plutonium-making reactors into a power-producing nuclear plant operated by WPPSS. In the 1970s WAPUDA helped WPPSS gain federal authorization to build five nuclear power plants simultaneously. WAPUDA also joined private power companies in defeating antinuclear Initiative 325 in 1976. Due to declining power demand and cost overruns, WPPSS completed only one of its five .proposed nuclear plants. In 1983 WPPSS announced it could not pay its creditors, triggering the largest municipal bond default in American history.