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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (June 30, 1955)
- f Hoover Commission Said To Favor Destruction of Public Power, Resulting in Cost Increases By A. ROBERT SMITH Mail Tribune Correspondent Washington (Special) A ma jor shift in the method of future' development of Pacific North west hydroelectric dams was rec ommended to Congress today by the Hoover Commission on gov ernment reorganization. Basically, the commission came out strongly for divesting the federal government of much of its role in developing the Colum bia River system, as it has for more than 20 years in building Bonneville, Grand Coulee, Mc Nary, Hungry Horse, Chief Jo seph and other major multiple purpose projects. The commis sion favored shifting this role generally from the federal to the local level, and to a great extent from public power to private power companies. The 11-man commission ap pointed by President Eisenhower and headed by former President Hoover called for; 1.. Creation of a regional pub lic corporation with jurisdiction to develop all future power proj ects needed by the Pacific North west from its great Columbia River system. The corporation would have to get congressional authorization of each dam it planned to build, but it would Medford Tribune Second Section MEDFORD, OREGON, THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1955 Pagesl-6 have authority to sell revenue bonds or other securities to pri vate investors to finance these new projects. This would end the method employed over the years of asking Congress to appropri ate the funds needed to build ad ditional dams. Discontinuance o f building government transmission lines and of giving preference to pub liv power agencies, such as rural co-ops, PUDs and municipalities, in delivering the power from federally-built dams. This pub lic preference clause, which the commission wants repealed, has been the keystone of the public power movement for many years. The commission charged that the public preference clause has caused "serious inequities and discrimination between the citi zens of the various states." It pointed out that because of the strong public power movement in Washington state, about 85 per cent of power generated by federal dams in the region goes into Washington and only about 15 per cent into Oregon, where private power companies are more prevalent. The Hoover recommendations were based generally on findings made by the commission's task force on water and power which held hearings in Portland last June. The Northwest representa tives on, that task force were Robert W. Sawyer, retired pub lisher of Bend, Ore., and William D. Shannon, Seattle engineer. . While the task force report was not immediately available, it was understood to have in cluded a recommendation that all existing federal dams be either leased or sold outright to private interests in order to get the government out of the power business expeditiously. The full commission turned thumbs down on this idea, saying that "the problem of ending, the present government operations in com petition with private enterprise in the power field . . . cannot be solved by simple recommenda tion that such activities should cease or be sold." "We do not entertain the idea of the sale of dams and their power houses," the commission declared. "These dams also per form highly important services to irrigation, navigation and flood control which must remain federal responsibilities." In a related field, the commis sion came up with two other pro posals bound to stir new contro versy in the Pacific Northwest. It recommended that Congress impose user charges on ships using the Columbia River and other inland waterways that have been . improved for navigation purposes at government expense. Also, the commission recom mended increasing the size of land holdings any farmer . may own to be eligible lor Irrigation from federal reclamation proj ects. The present limit Is 160 J The commission's report made acres, designed to give small family sized farms the benefit of reclamation development. What reaction the Eisenhower administration may have to the Hoover report remains to be seen, for it was sent directly to Congress. But one aspect of the commis sion report on power is expected to be greeted favorably by the administration an open en dorsement of the "partnership" power policy. The commission suggested that "private enter prise be offered the opportunity to provide the capital for the electrical component of multiple purpose dams and dispose of the power through their own sys tems, but the management of the dams should remain in the fed eral government." The Hoover group said times have changed since Hoover dam was built back in the days when such giant undertakings were "beyond the financial and tech nical strength of private enter prise." Since then, private cap ital has grown tremendously, the commission reported, so that "financially .there is no present or prospective need for federal financing of power activities." it abundantly clear that it was striving in various ways to re duce what it regarded as an 'unfair competitive" position held by public power over pri vate power. In suggesting that the preference clause be knocked out, it made a major move in this direction. Another major recommenda tion in this connection would re quire the federal government to make payments in lieu of taxes Spi 7) BHUSf 'fWB8WW m mm m m jil iw If m il tncuj IlSSiilIHJ SSgr Jj' I JJJGE COVERS of J EE " ' ri rS nrn AhA I Wm i ri ii i 1 1 i i 1 i - i 3D (SB We Give S&H GREEN STAMPS See Sportscholar KBES-TV Thurs., 7:30 p.m. 15 YOUR J NORTH CENTRAL EWELER PHONE 2-2970 PHONE 2-2970 QMMIIIBlID A.rfv'e IS M. Central Medford. Ore. tnckxed find 51 Dpwn toymen. Please Hold For Me I 6-Pc loggoge Set wHk 2 Uggege Covert included. All; I complete with oN festerae OS oaVertiiod. one! o for J29.'B8 I Sunton Ihe -. I I ooree to oov bolonct SI o week. 1 Of. "7W I OAdd lo my occoont New Account' Send COX). I I (If new occeant. please list references on border) I to state and local governments for power facilities in the area that are, of course, not taxable. These payments, the commission said, should be equivalent to the taxes paid by local private power companies. The commission also wanted the interest rate charged by the U.S. Treasury on funds invested by the government in power facilities increased from 2Vi to 3 per cent. Both these recommendations, if followed, would have the ef fect of forcing a sharp increase in the power rate charged by Bonneville Power Administra tion for the kilowatt output of government dams. Although it did not formally recommeriti it, the commission spoke favorably of interstate compacts which would invest the states with power to build new power dams. 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