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Show STATEHOUSE REPORT - Power Plant Construction Stop Asked in Four Corners Suits liy C. Sharp Environmentalists and Indians are trying to slop or delay construction and operation of six power plants in the Four Corner Corn-er area through suits they Ued in the U. S. District Court, Washington, D. C. They charge that th plants threaten the beauty and clean air of the area. The National Wildlife Federation and the Environmental Envir-onmental Defense Fund sued the Interior and Agriculture Ag-riculture departments. The Sierra Club and the Native Na-tive American Rights Fund sued the Interior and Agriculture Agri-culture Departments and the Corps of Engineers. Both suits should be tried together, the plaintiffs plaintif-fs ask. Want Injunction They want an injunction barring federal agencies from cooperating further with development of the power plants until they comply with the Environmental Environ-mental Policy Act requir-;ng requir-;ng environmental impact statements. If thc-ir claims are granted grant-ed this would forestall construction of the huge Kaiparowits plant in Kane County, halt construction con-struction under way at four other sites and even shut down the plant now opera ring near Farming-ton, Farming-ton, New Mexico. Inttrior Secy. Rogers C. Morton May 27 ordered his department to make a review re-view of all factors involved jn developing electric power pow-er to meet needs of the southwest United States. ' This review, he 6aid. would be made withrn about ab-out 12 months. Meanwhile no new power plant construction con-struction will be allowed, he said. Gives Assurance Gov. Calvin L. Rampton rf"-)ht n in ri assnm nep from Morton June 1 that Kaiparowits Kai-parowits had not been singled sin-gled out for delay. Rampton was the lead-eff lead-eff witness favoring national na-tional park status for Capitol Cap-itol Reef and Arches national na-tional monuments at hearings hear-ings June 3 before the Senate Sen-ate Interior Committee. He said tourists spent $175 million last year in Utah, making tourism the second largest industry in the state. Federal government govern-ment employment is the states largest single indus-try, indus-try, he said. The governor and Clem Phurch, Panguitch, Roadi Commission chairman, supported sup-ported bills introduced by Sen. Frank E. Moss, D-Utah, D-Utah, to extend boundries of Canyonlands National Park and establishing the Glen Canyon National Recreation Rec-reation area. Roads Study One of these bills, S27. call for a .tansportation; study by the Department of Interior .in consultation with other federal departments depart-ments and the state of Utah and Arizona. This would be to determine what roads are appropriaie land necessary for utilizing utiliz-ing the Four Corners area. Rampton complained at the slowness in building roads into Canyonlands Nation Na-tion Park. He urged that the Interior Department re-ta'n re-ta'n jurisdiction during the proposed study. Moss said he hopes to' have hearings on all four bills completed by July. Sen. Wallace F. Bennett, R-Utah, reportedly has withdrawn his objection to' the Moss bills. More Acres Thomas F. Flynn, acting director, National ' Park Service, testified supporting support-ing generally the four bills. For Canyonlands he recommended adding another ano-ther 16,092 acres for a to tal addition of 95,710 aerer. but for Arches lie asked for 1(30 acres less than sought by Moss. He said the administration administra-tion favors adding Dead Horse Point State Park to Canyonlands. Other Utahns testifying were Bates E. Wilson, superintendent su-perintendent of Canyon lands and Arches; C. E. Johnson, superintendent of Capitol Reef, and George C. Hatch, president of KUTV. Henry C. Ilelland, state director of highways, reports re-ports that a $2 million job for surfacing two more lanes of 1-70 for 18 miles west of Green River must be delayed until more federal fed-eral funds are released. Frozn Funds A $0 million release of "Ifrozen" funds first scheduled sched-uled to included the 1-70 job was used up instead for projected construction ef a $7.2 million, six-mile section sec-tion of 1-80 through Par-Leys Par-Leys Canyon east of Salt Lake City. The State Supreme Court June 4 upheld by a 3-2 decision dec-ision the constitutionality of the law requiring mo-totor mo-totor cyclists to wear crash helmets on highways posted post-ed for speeds exceeding 35 rniles an hour.' Justice A. H. Ellett, author au-thor of the prevailing op-ilnion, op-ilnion, held that it is "a proper exercise of police power for the Legislature to enact statutes" which tend to prevent maiming of citizenry. Justice J. Allan Crockett, Crock-ett, in a strong dissent, said "history is dotted with examples of governments govern-ments which have extended extend-ed their controls until they 'h;ave 'controlled' themselves themsel-ves into decay and out of existence." Tentacles on Liberty ..He described the law as "spreading tentacles of control into what ought to be matters of personal and private control." The Slate Road Commission Commis-sion May 23 banned tisc-of tisc-of studded snow tires effective ef-fective April 15, 1972. This leaves motorists the full season of next October 15 until April 15, to get the final use from studded tires or else have the studs extracted. ex-tracted. The commission directed ills legal staff to consider granting reciprocity pacts to permit curs from neigh boring states, which m.ght still permit use of studded tires, to drive nto Utah lor limited travel to ski areas. Two southeastern Utah legislators are the chairman chair-man and vice chairman of two new Legislative Council Coun-cil standing committees announced by Senate President Pres-ident Haven J. Barlow, council chairman. Sen. Omar Bunnell, D-Price, D-Price, is chairman of the Public Education committee commit-tee and Rep. Mike Dmi-rieh, Dmi-rieh, D-Price, is vice chairman chair-man of the Government Planning Committee chair-'maned chair-'maned by Sen. Dixie Leav-!.tt, Leav-!.tt, R-Cedar City. The chairman and vice chairman of eight standing committees will select other oth-er legislators to assist in ievtewing1 proposed legislation legis-lation during the coming two years. State sales tax collections collect-ions are expected to exceed estimates by $2 million and dncom tax collections are expected to yield S1.3 million mil-lion more than anticipated last winter for the fiscal year to end June 30. |