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Show a fax on progress Rep. John Saylor of Pennsylvania has introduced a bill in Congress to propose a tax of 0.4 mills per kilowatt hour on nuclear generated el'ectric power. Mr. Saylor told the House the purpose of the tax would he to recover a part of the funds spent by the government gov-ernment on nuclear research to develop the present-day present-day technology of civilian power. Some research at present indicates that revenue from such a tax would amount to $147 million by 1980, if projections of nuclear power growth by the AEC prove xo be correct. - We do not deny that the federal government has ' expended tremendous totals of money in technology studies which have- sparked the research which-has which-has now made nuclear-generated power competitive ; on today s market. We do however, fear that this I taeked-on tax proposal has a smell of "Indian Giving," ' and may in fact have the effect of making this new, clean type- of power generation less competitive. ; There well may become a time when the nuclear generating industry is well enough established to support sup-port government revenue measures. It is our opinion i however that the time is not right presently. The ; long, uphill fight to become competitive has been a 1 hard one for the advocates of nuclear power genera- i. tion. We would hate to see those - efforts nipped in i the bud in the first few years wnich have shown a ;i promising future. |