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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 1981)
emerara Vol. 82, No. 89 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Thursday, January 29, 1981 Photo by Steve Dykes Local jelly belly It's only fair. If Pres. Ronald Reagan gets to munch jelly beans on the job, then University Acting Pres. Paul Olum should also be able to, says the University Mothers Club. Besides presenting Olum with the glass of candies Wednesday, the club also gave $150 to the library and don ated a mirror to the athletic depart ment for the Autzen Stadium weight training room It isn't known if they made Olum brush his teeth. Law clinic Legislators sign support; lumberman may keep gift By BILL MANNY Of the Emerald Controversy continued to envelop the University Law School's beleaguered Environmental Law Clinic Wednesday. In a surprising show of legislative sup port, 44 state legislators sent a letter to Acting Pres. Paul Olum expressing "our continued positive support" for the clin ic. However, Irv Fletcher of the Lane County Labor Council says a Eugene attorney for lumberman Aaron Jones maintains Jones will withhold $250,000 in donations to the University if the clinic isn’t dismantled. Louis Hoffman, Jones’ attorney, said at a meeting of business and labor leaders last week that Jones will not donate funds he has promised for the proposed University domed basketball arena if the clinic isn't closed, according to Fletcher The Environmental Law Clinic is one of several University law programs where students get practical legal experience in areas such as "natural-resources law and administrative questions." The clinic has angered timber interests for its representation of environmen talists and environmental issues. In their letter, the legislators wrote "we are firm in our belief that the structure and scope of the Environmental Law Clinic should not be changed, altered or diminished." Olum said he was "heartened" at the support the clinic has received from “both inside and outside the academic community.” The University, Olum said, “will resist all efforts to dismantle the clinic or to render ineffective its important training activities." However, Olum said, he wanted to make clear that the University "is not taking sides in a social or political issue.” Olum said the University would take steps to avoid appearing committed to public policy positions. The Environmental Law Clinic has filed three lawsuits in its five years. The most recent is a pending attempt to halt timber-cutting and road-building in an Idaho erosion area. The suit requests aerial cutting methods to eliminate the need for roads that would increase ero sion and threaten salmon spawning areas. Law school Dean Derrick Bell said the letter “was very, very encouraging. It was a very worthwhile expression.” Bell said well-represented interests are often angered when someone "repre sents the side of the otherwise unrepre sented.” But law school students are active in a variety of legal programs, including defense, civil-legal, and pro secution clinics. Bell has said industry officials are invited to propose a clinic that would represent big business issues. "It would be possible to make a dis connection" of the law clinic from the University, Bell said. But moving the clinic off campus would only inconven ience students. Bell likened an Environmental Law Clinic in the heart of timber country to a civil-rights law clinic in the Deep South Lawyers represent clients but don't necessarily support the clients' views, Bell said. There are a number of similar experience-earning clinics nationwide. Bell said the clinic's structure will be examined and changed, if necessary, to "avoid the appearance of partiality.” But he said the purpose of the clinic will not be altered In their letter to Olum, the legislators said "the adversary process is one of the pillars of freedom in our society. "We offer our assistance in maintain ing the high standard of excellence es tablished by the University, its School of Law and the Environmental Law Clinic." The 44 signers included Margie Hen driksen, Ed Fadeley, House Speaker Grattan Kerans, all D-Eugene; Ted Kulongoski, D-Junction City; Mary McCauley Burrows, R-Eugene; and House Speaker Hardy Myers, D-Klamath Falls. Voracious industries get power rate break By GREG WASSON Of ttM Emerald SALEM — The more power they used, the cheaper it got. That’s how it was in the days of plentiful electricity, when energy-intensive industries such as aluminum plants along the Columbia Gorge and the nickel mine in Riddle contracted directly with the Bonneville Power Administration and were rewarded for their gregarious appetites. Supplies are no longer abundant, however. And as the contracts between the businesses, known as Direct Service Industries, and the BPA expire, rates should increase dramatically. In fact, the rates are supposed to rise so much that industry money would be used to keep residential rates down. But at a Capitol press conference Wednesday, Public Utility Director John Lobdell said he has heard rumors that industry has convinced the BPA not to raise the rates as dramatically as the public was assured during the Northwest Power Bill debate. "The DSIs have brought all their legal talent, lobbying talent and other sources of influence out of the woodwork and have brought it fully to bear on Bon neville,” Lobdell said. He blamed lack of BPA leader ship, noting that current director Sterling Munro will almost assuredly be replaced. During the void in leadership, “the industries may be overly influencing the staff,” Lobdell said. "(I am) incensed that BPA would continue to look at the DSIs as favorite sons. This means that energy-in tensive industries, such as the aluminum industry, end up with a rate that is lower than the rate at which power will be sold to other industries,” he said "A subsidy exists and that subsidy has to be paid by either surplus sales or sales to residential customers, or both.” Lobdell's announcement is only the latest revelation of the confusion in subsidies created by the passage of the Northwest Power Bill. The bill, fought by Rep. Jim Weaver, D-Ore., requires rate payers to pay the construction and operating costs of power plants. But it also says state law will be supreme. Oregon voters in 1978 approved a measure prohibiting utilities from charging rate payers for plants that weren't yet producing electricity. During a briefing to the House Energy Committee two weeks ago, BPA representative Mike Kapz was asked which part of the bill rules. "I don’t know,” he replied. At the same meeting, the state’s three regional power-bill experts were asked if the DSIs would be eligible for conservation credits contained in the legislation. The first reponded “No,” the second, “Yes.” And the third? “It’s ambiguous.”
