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Show adding our tvo-bits worth Up until last week, we resisted the impulse to add our opinion to the growing list of pros and cons surrounding the application of Raft River REA to supply low-cost federally supported power to certain areas not now 'being- served by electricity north and eaht of the Groat Salt Lake, in order to insure- development devel-opment of industry in that area to refine minerals from brines of that lake. However, with the passage last week of a resolution reso-lution by the Grand county Commission, which opposed oppos-ed the REA application, we feel that perhaps other voices from this area some 300 miles away would rot be out of place. It appears that if the application is approved, Utah will receive the multi-thousand dollar job industry. On the other hand, it is pretty obvious that if the petition pe-tition of REA is denied, the industry will be located in the Pacific Northwest, and brines from our lake merely pumped there to be treated. We would like to feel secure enough to support the county resolution, since we have traditionally espoused es-poused the cause of private enterprise. But we're afraid selfish interest will not allow it. A repoit this week from Utah Foundation shows that Utah is growing grow-ing at a much slower rate than the rest of the nation, and our relative position among states is slipping further fur-ther and further each' year. With the construction of major power generating facilities all around us, such as Glen Canyon Dam, Flaming Gorge and Navajo, along with the already constructed facilities on, the Columbia river system, Utah is ringed by states now utilizing low cost power to develop new resource industry and hence grow at a rate much faster than our state. We would not like to see private producers crowded out of the industrial picture in Utah. Certainly we , have seen graphic illustrations of how the private producer assisted in the development of resources in fast growing Southeastern Utah. We do feel, however that the private producer would benefit tremendously from power used by the thousands of supporting jobs that the new industry would make available along with the rest of Utah. Being "different" is all right up to a point. But Utah needs industrial expansion too much to take much pride in being too different. |