Tom Mallams: Shareholders, Warren Buffet benefit the most 

By TY BEAVER 

H&N Staff Reporter

October 14, 2010

     A PacifiCorp official says the company’s shareholders will not benefit from Klamath River dam removal despite allegations to the contrary from Tom Mallams, an irrigator off the Klamath Reclamation Project.

   Instead, shareholders are foregoing a $200 million return on investment by having the facilities decommissioned, said Art Sasse the company’s spokesman.

   “ It really is a good and fair deal for customers — and Mr. Mallams is one of those folks getting such a deal,” he said.  

   Mallams, an opponent of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and dam removal, said the utility’s shareholders and principal owner, Warren Buffet, would still benefit from dam removal.

   “They are the big winner on it. The ratepayers and taxpayers are the losers,” Mallams said.

   Dam removal feasibility

   Dam removal is an aspect of the agreement, which allocates water among stakeholders in the Klamath River Basin. The federal government is studying the feasibility of dam removal, and a final decision by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior is expected in March 2012.

   Dam removal would be paid for by a surcharge on PacifiCorp’s Oregon and California customers and bonds yet to be approved by California voters.

   Mallams had said that PacifiCorp’s statements saying it was looking out for its ratepayers were false, which Sasse refuted in a written statement to the Herald and News.

   “We are a highly regulated utility and aren’t simply allowed to make our own arbitrary decisions on investments and profits, but in fact everything flows through the Public Utility Commission   in each of the six states we serve,” Sasse wrote.

   “By agreeing to a potential dam removal agreement — the shareholders gain nothing from the customer’s investment in that removal. And if Mr. Mallams doesn’t want to take our word for it — the Oregon PUC acknowledged this in its approval of the Klamath surcharge.”

   Mallams said the PUC’s approval of the surcharge was a foregone conclusion as it based its findings on data provided by the utility and direction from Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s office.

   “The governor basically mandated that was going to happen,” he said.