Huffman, Pallone, Hoyle, Castor Demand Answers on Trump-Musk Layoff Spree of Grid Workers, Risk to Electricity Supply

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), and Representatives Val Hoyle (D-Oreg.) and Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) sent a letter demanding answers to the Trump administration’s indiscriminate firing of Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) employees at Bonneville Power Administration, Southeastern Power Administration, Southwestern Power Administration, and Western Area Power Administration.

“Operating at no expense to federal taxpayers, the PMAs provide affordable, reliable power to public utility districts and cooperatives at cost-based rates, playing a key role in supporting our nation’s energy security. The PMAs’ ability to remain a cornerstone of our nation’s energy system depends on maintaining adequate staffing levels—particularly for grid reliability, energy distribution, and infrastructure maintenance. These indiscriminate layoffs threaten to disrupt core operations, drive up energy costs, cause service interruptions, and compromise long-term grid stability,” the members wrote.

The letter went on to demand the administration answer several important questions to assess the impact of these workforce reductions and to ensure the PMAs can continue fulfilling their statutory obligations.

“The PMAs play an essential role in providing reliable, affordable energy to millions of Americans. Any disruption to their operations could greatly impact energy security and affordability nationwide,” the letter stated.

A copy of the letter can be found here.

BACKGROUND

Power dispatchers, transmission schedulers and planners, field workers, and engineers have been laid off from the nation’s power marketing administrations — federal agencies that market and transmit wholesale electricity.

The Members are demanding details about workers laid off at:

The Bonneville Power Administration, a self-funded entity in the Pacific Northwest that controls more than 75% of the region’s high-voltage transmission lines, as well as the flow of electricity from 31 federal dams and one nuclear power plant.
The Southeastern Power Administration, which markets over 7 billion kilowatt-hours of Federal hydropower energy annually to wholesale customers across the southeastern United States, generating revenue of over $300 million.
The Southwestern Power Administration, which markets over 5.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually across its six-state marketing area, primarily generated from federal hydropower projects, serving over 10 million end users through municipalities, electric cooperatives, and military installations.
The Western Area Power Administration, which annually markets and delivers more than 25,000 gigawatt-hours of reliable, cost-based hydropower from power plants at 57 Federal dams to rural electric cooperatives, municipalities, public utility districts, Federal and state agencies, Native American tribes and irrigation districts.

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