Keep the Northwest's Power Independent: Most Westerners in a New Poll Reject Tying Their Utilities to California's Market

Whose rules should govern the electricity that lights homes from Seattle to Boise? A new poll says most people in the West want the answer to stay close to home.

Among the 1,733 respondents who picked a side, 88 percent said their utilities should stay independent, and 12 percent said they should coordinate with California's electricity market, The Daily Caller and BizPac Review reported ^[1][2]. The survey was conducted by Causeway Solutions for the Western Energy Markets Integrity Council, a group that opposes putting Bonneville's federal hydropower into what it calls a "California-centric trading platform," the outlets reported ^[1][2]. Readers should weigh the numbers with that sponsorship in mind, but the margin is hard to ignore.

The decision on the table

The Bonneville Power Administration, the federal agency that markets the electricity from dozens of dams on the Columbia River system, is deciding which day-ahead electricity market to join. A BPA spokesperson said a draft decision is expected in December, according to the reports ^[1][2].

A day-ahead market is where utilities across a wide region line up their power purchases and sales a day before the electricity is needed. Done well, it lets surplus power from one place flow to where it is needed most, at the lowest cost. Done badly, or governed by the wrong people, it can tilt the rules toward the biggest players in the room.

The choice is between two rival markets. One is the Extended Day-Ahead Market, run by the California Independent System Operator. The other is Markets+, run by the Southwest Power Pool ^[3]. Federal regulators approved Markets+ as a Western market option in 2025, Utility Dive reported ^[6].

Bonneville has already leaned toward Markets+. In a March letter, the agency laid out a proposed decision to join it ^[4]. But Utility Dive has reported that Bonneville's leadership has considered switching to the California market, citing changes to how that market is governed, and that a change would be proposed in a later draft decision only if California's operator takes concrete steps on governance ^[3]. The Southwest Power Pool has answered that its market already offers independent governance ^[3].

Why governance matters to your bill

For families, this can sound like a fight between acronyms. It is really a fight about who sets the rules for some of the cheapest, cleanest power in America.

Northwest ratepayers paid for the Columbia River dams over generations, and the hydropower they produce is a regional treasure. Joining a market is not just a technical choice about trading schedules. It decides whose board writes the rules, whose priorities shape prices in a crisis, and how much say the Northwest keeps over its own resource. That is why governance has been the central question in Bonneville's deliberations from the start ^[3][4].

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Supporters of the California market make a serious argument, and it deserves a fair hearing. Environmental groups say Bonneville's choice of Markets+ will raise customer rates and hurt reliability, and Earthjustice has warned that the decision would roll back clean-energy progress ^[5]. Bonneville's own analysis has been part of that debate over which market would save customers more ^[4][5].

But savings estimates on paper are only part of the picture. Westerners have watched California's energy policies push up costs and strain reliability inside its own borders, and many are wary of handing more influence over their power to a market built around California's needs. The poll suggests that wariness runs deep, even allowing for who paid for it ^[1][2].

What comes next

Bonneville's draft decision is due in December, according to the agency ^[1][2]. If it sticks with Markets+, expect the environmental groups and California market backers to keep pressing their case ^[5]. If it moves toward California's market, expect the utilities, public power districts and residents who want independence to make themselves heard.

Either way, this is a decision that will be felt on monthly power bills across the region for years. The people who paid for the dams deserve a market that answers to them, and Liberty Bell Report will follow Bonneville's decision when it comes.