Bonneville Power staff departures under Trump raise concerns about Northwest electrical grid (OPB)

[Amaryllis]

https://www.opb.org/article/2025/02/13/bonneville-power-administration-workforce-donald-trump-resign-severance-hiring/

Linemen, engineers among hundreds of staff to leave Bonneville Power Administration as Trump trims workforce

The Bonneville Power Administration could lose nearly 20% of its workforce because of President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal government, according to agency figures released Thursday and interviews with staff. That’s raising concerns among current and former employees about the agency’s ability to ensure the reliability of the region’s electrical grid.

Related: Are you a federal worker in the Pacific Northwest? OPB wants to hear from you

About 200 of the agency’s more than 3,000 employees have accepted the Trump administration’s offer to resign and receive eight months of severance pay, which the administration sent via an email with the subject line “Fork in the Road.”

BPA administrator John Hairston announced that number Thursday during the agency’s quarterly outlook presentation. An additional 90 job offers at BPA were rescinded as a result of the administration’s freeze on federal hiring. Chief financial officer is among the open positions held up by the hiring freeze.
John Hairston, administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration

John Hairston, administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration

Courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy

Current and former BPA staff anticipate another 350 to 400 probationary employees could be cut — though one current employee said agency leadership have fought to keep that number below 150. E&E News reported Thursday that the Department of Energy planned to lay off most or all of its probationary employees.

The employees taking the buyout include linemen, engineers, substation operators and power dispatchers — positions that take years of apprenticeship to learn.

“I can’t overemphasize the fact that this is a serious, serious, operational problem,” Randall Hardy, an energy consultant and former administrator of BPA, said about the staff losses. “The reliability impacts of this could be very serious. I mean the lights go out. Unplanned outages.”

Losing a large chunk of its highly trained workforce will hinder the agency’s ability to perform core functions, the BPA staff members said. Those functions include distributing hydropower from 31 federal dams and operating 75% of the Northwest’s power grid, ensuring reliable electricity for millions in the Northwest.

OPB also spoke about the staff losses with three BPA employees who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal. OPB verified their identities using a variety of publicly available records.

“While the number of people leaving is a concern, the real problem is who is leaving,” one BPA employee said. “We have several mission critical employees with decades of institutional knowledge who have accepted the offer.”

More at link

[neverforget]

1. I live in a suburb of Portland and I've been telling my wife that DOGE is going to

break something that is going to cause catastrophic damage monetarily, physically or both. They're a bull in a China shop breaking shit without thinking anything through. The consequences may not happen right away, but a few weeks or months down the road when it finally works it's way through the system.

[Amaryllis]

2. I live here too. Why do they want to break stuff? What do they get out of it?

[neverforget]

5. It's shows that government doesn't work and they get to privatize it

Plus they're just vengeful, petty assholes who love misery.

[Punx]

10. In Chaos they can steal*

Also,

The billionaires will have plenty of money and will be able to buy up what's left of the country for pennies on the dollar when they are done.

*Randi Rhodes back in the Bush years. Or what seems like the "good old times" nowadays.

[rubbersole]

14. Shit, ar this point tr*mp's 1st go around looks like the good old days.

Only a million (give 🖕or take🖕 unnecessary covid deaths and no blueprint (project 2025) for a dictatorship. Yeah, I won't leave out Bill Barr/Epstine/Kavanaugh/Leonard Leo/'my documents'....never mind.

[Botany]

3. They need experienced people to run this? Who knew.

A hydroelectric dam, flood control, water for irrigation, salmon runs, and a lock system.

[EarthFirst]

4. Isn't it just a series of faucets?

A knob here; a knob there….beautiful water making lightbulbs dance!

Bing! Bing! Bing!

[Botany]

16. Just the electric power grid for all or parts 8 states ... piece of cake.

I’m sure there is a YouTube video that can let Musk’s AI people run it. I’m sure Elon will be out
there after a forest fire burns out some of the high voltage transmission lines.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/Bonneville_Power_Administration_%28system_map%2C_October_2020%29.svg

[cbabe]

6. From the link. Baby Nazi doge boys: whatcha gonna do to power your laptops?

… The order installs at each federal agency a “DOGE Team Lead” who has oversight over hiring.

Hardy, the former BPA administrator, said he considered the Bonneville staff reductions to be ironic because the agency is self-funded. It receives no money from taxpayers and funds all of its staff and programs with its power and transmission sales.

“So the administration isn’t saving a thing with these,” Hardy said. “ It doesn’t save one penny towards reducing the Federal deficit.”

(Pacific NW home of Microsoft, Amazon…)

[Amaryllis]

7. So is it a federal agency?

[cbabe]

9. Yes. Not only dams, nuclear power plant also.

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Bonneville_Power_Administration
Bonneville Power Administration -

Wikipedia
BPA is a federal agency that markets electricity from 31 hydroelectric dams and one nuclear plant in the Pacific Northwest. It also …

[Norrrm]

8. a "DOGE Team Lead"... Commissar

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. They'll probably try to privatize it

G DUhbya was leaning that way when he was in but there was too much push back, so he never did.

[RainCaster]

12. That "Fraud In The Road" email

Needs to be blamed on the entire GOP - they have to own it. Along with its phony promises.

[jeffreyi]

13. Good luck with those buyouts.

They are far from a sure thing.

[leanforward]

15. In this early retirement,

will there be (in the fine print) a retirement payment from FERS or CSRS. I’m thinking of a monthly payment. To me a buyout means lump sum, then you had better invest wisely for your monthly income.

[cbabe]

17. Betting Jeff and Bill are on it. Jurassic park clash of the billionaires. (PAC NW Amazon & Microsoft home.)