Bonneville Power staff departures under Trump raise concerns about Northwest electrical grid (OPB) [View all]

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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 An additional 90 job offers at BPA were rescinded as a result of the administration’s freeze on federal hiring.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.”

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