If the only consideration was the instantaneous purity of the market for electric power, no one would make aluminum in the Northwest. If we all lived in the moment, if thinking ahead was forbidden, the Bonneville Power Administration would coldly adhere to its statutes and sell most of its often plentiful and cheap federal hydroelectric power to the region’s public utilities at a cut rate. It would sell some to private utilities and farmers and tell industry to fend for itself. Jobs, the economy, the region’s future, none of that would matter. We might get slightly lower power rates, but we might not. Jobs and the people who need them wouldn’t be considered.

The Bonneville Power Administration, the federal government’s New Deal-created marketer of power, is not now in its cold-shoulder mode. It is both selling power and considering how the industrious human beings of the region might use it to produce wealth, and produce valued commodities, and provide a dose of stability and long-term economic security. On Monday, BPA Administrator Steve Wright and Gov. Chris Gregoire traveled to Ferndale to sign a power sales agreement with Alcoa’s Intalco smelter, which employs 528 people making middle-class wages, who spread their wealth to support thousands more. The crowd of workers heartily cheered as the pact was formalized. BPA will provide up to 320 megawatts to Alcoa for the next 17 months at its standard industrial rate. It agreed to provide power for five years beyond that, depending how the courts resolve the inevitable legal challenge from the people who would like that power for themselves.

In recent decisions (the Northwest’s power policies are always in court, somewhere) the court seemed to say that BPA cannot sell to industries like Alcoa unless there is no measurable impact on other BPA customers, and that BPA cannot consider social and economic benefits of its power sales. It shouldn’t ponder how many jobs might be created, for instance.

BPA says this shouldn’t be the standard. Jobs can’t be ignored. People can’t be ignored. “It comes down to, are we a community or not,” Wright said at Intalco. He said he believes the court “should change direction upon further consideration.”

Significantly, Gregoire said the state is ready to go to the mat for aluminum jobs. “We will be in the Ninth Circuit, we will be in the U.S. Supreme Court,” she told the Intalco workers, the event covered by The Bellingham Herald. Losing hundreds of manufacturing jobs, especially now, would be a major blow to the state. “Devastating,” said Gregoire.

This is a substantial change in attitude from the power crisis of eight years ago, when the region was willing, even anxious, to see the aluminum industry disappear and call it “conservation.” Making aluminum inhales huge amounts of power — the energy consumed at Intalco could light up a quarter of Seattle. When Chelan County PUD’s new agreement with Alcoa goes into effect in 2011, the Wenatchee Works will take a quarter of the power from two Columbia River dams. Measured in jobs per kilowatt, this does not shine. There will be times when that power might be sold for a higher rate to somebody else, and they’ll call the difference a “subsidy.” But, there will be times — the dead of night for instance — when aluminum will be infusing the system with cash when few others will. And there is much more to the big picture than giving some people low power bills some of the time. There is stability, there is continuity, there is the economic future of thousands of families, there is the region’s productivity and the nation’s need for valuable materials like metal. For lack of a more precise term, call it the greater good. We can use our power to build our community.

Tracy Warner’s column appears Tuesday through Friday. He can be reached at warner@wenworld.com or 665-1163.