Phone
  • Begining to 2018
    Starting off
    Wanted to know why electric bill was so high. Got together with others concerned with utility bills. Read and studied PUD in Skamania being raised in PUD family and a career of being a public servant in natural resources.
  • 2019-2024 phase 1
    first Skamania county public utility district Documents request, 3000+ hours researcH 2019-2024, "no pay, no favors hours" with ratepayers and attempts to work with pud
    Studies draft 2018 COSA and 2019 COSA and much more. I Became Grassroots Watch Dog for SCPUD and advocate for residential and business ratepayers being price gouged along with all taxpayers not getting services but being taxed PUD levies and/or charged for meter without power usage, etc. Another founder started Facebook Electricity is not a luxury, it's a necessity! is open to all public and intended for Skamania County PUD related posts. Organized hundreds of likeminded folks in Skamania and eventually later in 2019 Skamania County Conservation Council became organized with several directors of equal standing. We requested anonymity because the SCPUD Commissioner were doing what they could to prevent empowerment of the people. We had public meeting with actual energy assistance i.e. crawling under homes for energy efficiency issues, performing energy efficiency calculations for them and presenting what the PUD is all about from ratepayer perspective. We had several power point presentations, newspaper articles, documents requests and sharing, and of course being part of every PUD meeting in some way or another, and directly addressing PUD Commissioners and key management like General Manager.
  • 2024
    Phase two run for pud commissioner Standing here for you!
    Since 2019, The current PUD Commissioner always for the same which is to increase rates, fees, charges and levies at every opportunity. They have never voted NO to any expense line item on expense vouchers best of knowlegde. This needs more than watch dogs. We need PUD Commissioners who are not ONLY NICE buy also vote in favor of representing ratepayers and hold more accountable.

campaign in person events meet & greet & Q&A

october 1 2024 candidates night
6:00-8:00PM
Chamber of Commerce hosting candidates including PUD candidates to the upcoming forum on Tuesday October 1, 2024 at Hegewald Center in Stevenson, WA. ~3 min intro and Q & A at Maria Mel Steele's table with handouts. 710 SW Rock Creek Dr, Stevenson, WA 98648
october 4 2024 canidates night
6:30-8:30PM
Underwood Parks and Recreation community is hosting Underwood Community Center Friday Oct 4, 2024 at 6:30PM Q & A after ~5 min intro and Q & A at Maria Mel Steele's table with handouts. 951 School House Rd, Underwood, WA 98651
october 11 2024
6:30-8:30PM
American Legion Post 122 will be hosting the “Candidate’s Forum for District 1” on October 11th at 6:30 pm. Q & A after ~3 min intro and Q & A at Maria Mel Steele's table with handouts. 10221 Washougal River Rd, Washougal, WA 98671

Who am I

I’m ‘Maria’ Mel Steele and running for office of Skamania County Public Utility Commissioner. As a 16 years resident I love Skamania. Our Public Utility District (PUD) administration staff is stellar at front office. Field staff has always been effective and friendly from my experiences. Welcome to your potential future of lower utility bills, incentives, options and disclosures in each billing. I, Maria Mel Steele, are your trusted Public Utility Commissioner Hopeful. Please vote November 5th 2024 to have the best ratepayer representation. Please vote LOCALLY. All of Skamania folks can vote for me as I will serve all of the county. Mail-in and do absentee in advance if need be. Vote because your future depends on affordability in Skamania County.
About

About my accomplisments

01

History

Being raised in public utility family it is in my blood. Education:Masters Science Studies from Humboldt State University – Forest Ecology, University of Washington – Natural Resource Management, Central Washington University – Natural Resource Law, [Utah State University, Northern Arizona University and Colorado State University] resulted in working as Federal Certified Silviculturist.I served 25+ years as a civil servant with the federal government in natural resources including: USFS-Wind River, Region-6, Region-4 , Washington-DC and retiring as NW-Regional Planning Forester Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bonneville Power Administration building in Portland. I believe this experience qualifies me to govern our locally owned utility with constituents

02

Approach

I will maximize public disclosures, ensure ratepayer representation and will scrutinize recommendations that cost our ratepayers money. I will not support unfair/unjust fees, I support lower baserates, and support replacing penalties with incentives for essential electricity and water. The PUD takes Net-Metering Credits away each spring. I do not support taking these credits being taken away and believe we should add incentives for self-reads. I support penalty free for Advanced-Metering-Infrastructure (AMI aka “Smart”meters) Op-Outs for safety, health and medical reasons.

03

Successes

For last 6 years I have been a grassroots liaison for PUD ratepayer’s families and businesses, and extensively interacting with the Skamania PUD. This has been my primary civic mission dedicating 3000+ volunteer hours. I led ~dozen public meetings in Washougal, Skamania, and North Bonneville. Over 6 power point presentations were designed and presented by me for Ratepayers of Skamania County Public Utility District. Thus I was providing valuable public disclosures. Research was shared with Skamania County Conservation Council (SCCC). A public Facebook was started by angry ratepayers - Electricity is Not a Luxury, it's a Necessity! was and still has OPEN PUBLIC DISCLOUSURES in Skamania County. I wrote or contributed to ~ a dozen newspaper articles in Skamania Pioneer, Camas-Washougal paper, etc. representing my opinion from ratepayer’s perspective. Wrote Ratepayers Resolutions with SCCC and signed by many residents of Skamania County. I attended, participated, and commented publically at most every PUD Commissioner meeting for last 5+ years one way or another, meeting face to face with General Manager(s). Myself and other concerned ratepayers did numerous records requests and discovered massive amounts on otherwise undisclosed key information from Skamania County PUD. Very slowly a few of the public’s outcry did make important changes. i.e. Zooming meeting are now recorded as of 2024. It took ~4 years for these requests to be honored. You can find then under https://www.skamaniapud.com/about-us/agendas-minutes/

04

Values

As your representative, I will VOTE to lower Utility Bills, build Revenue Reserves, and reverse debt trajectory. I have been crunching SCPUD data for years and there are two obvious and practical ways to lower utility bills and decrease the current debt trajectory: 1) Increase Expense Accountability and require Cost/Benefit Analysis prior to Capital-Projects2) Invoke Usage Rate Tiering. This brings more revenue and encourages conservation of power and water.I support FUNDS like COVID funds from State or funds from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) that are meant for direct relief for ratepayers to be appropriated funds and not otherwise.Our PUD buys wholesale 3.5 cents/KwH from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) currently. In 2019 the BPA 10 Year Strategic Plan called for NO increase in baserates and to keep all contracts under the ~2.5% inflation. In 2019 SCPUD estimated it costs twice wholesale to deliver retail. So why is the PUD now ~10 cents/KwH and $54 per residential electrical meter and even higher for businesses? It was VOTED in by incumbent!I am AGAINST Data Centers which will double electrical demands in Skamania, use massive water and broadband. Commissioners voted to support Data Centers in North Bonneville on Port Lands and without proper public disclosure. Skamania currently needs ~17megawatts, whereas the three proposed Data Center “PODs” DEMAND is projected at 16megawatts Tier2-Variable-Market-Rate. This is doubling of power DEMAND and it means more than double trouble. I am against the Cascade Renewable Project. It intend to trench, frack the Columbia River bottom primarily on Washington State side of river and trenching deep around Bonneville Dam. This may be serviced by nuclear reactors and provide 1,100megawatts for the 2gigawatt projected DEMAND for Intel west of Portland, Oregon. I spoke against Ratepayers money funding a destructive project that was stated to have "No Benefit to Skamania County" by person solciting money for project. This did not stop the PUD Commisioners from gifting public funds.

05

Customer centric

The Mission of the Public Utility Districts of Washington State is to Conserver Power, Water (and now Broadband) for the PEOPLE! We should revert back to Customer Centric for Essential Needs first and formost.

Integrity and transparency

Honesty and transparency form the basis of my principles. Power Pulse acts honestly and openly in all interactions. I believe in building strong relationships based on trust, and my commitment to integrity ensures that PUD customers receive accurate information, honest dealings, and a service experience rooted in transparency.
Site map
Contacts
POB 572 North Bonneville, WA 98639
Follow me
© Copyright 2024 pud2024steele@gmail.com All rights reserved Maria Mel Steele. Not to be copied or altered in any way. All registered trademarks herein are the property of their respective owners.

get electrical or water rates lower

representation now. Elect maria mel steele november 5 2024 everyone in skamania county can vote to lower utility bills and increase public disclosures

secure campaign donation
Electricity is not a luxury, it's a necessity! https://www.facebook.com/groups/576987189570902/