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Show Energy impact aid bill introduced by Sen. Hart By Helene C. Monberg Washington- Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo., D-Colo., has put into the hopper again his energy impact aid bill to help communities com-munities particularly in the Four Corners area cope with new energy developments, and he is beefing up his . Western Slope Contacts. Allan Hale of the Hart staff, who has been handling Western Slope energy developments for Hart, is scheduled soon to open Hart's new Western Slope office in Grand Junction. "We decided to open a Western Slope office and get rid of our mobile office. While Allan will be headquartered in Grand Junction, Junc-tion, we expect he'll be moving around quite a bit" thruout the Western Slope and the Divide country, an aide to Hart said on May 21. The Western Slope offices for the Colorado Congressional delegation are becoming increasingly important to them. John Jackson, formerly on the staff of Sen. William L. Armstrong, R-Colo., R-Colo., here, now heads the Armstrong Western Slope office, also headquartered headquar-tered in Grand Junction. Jackson is from Durango. Jim Huska, formerly on the staff of the House Interior Committee, Com-mittee, heads the Western Slope office of Rep. Hank Brown, R-Colo., also located in Grand Junction. Such offices are a good way of checking on new energy-mineral developments in Western Colorado, the Four Corners area and thruout the inter-mountain West, according to the M.C.'s who maintain them. Hart's energy impact area aid bill is precisely the same bill that finally passed the Senate last summer with the co-sponsorship of Sen. Jennings Randolph, D-W. VA. It amends the 1978 Fuel Use Act to provide front-load energy impact assistance to local communities impacted by energy developments thru the Farmers Home Administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The aid would go to state and local governments and to Indian tribes to help them "avoid and reduce the adverse social and economic effect of large-scale energy developments," develop-ments," Hart told the Senate. The aid In the form of federal asistance includes $1.5 billion in federal guarantees of loaas by states and local governments and Indian tribes, and $400 million per year in loans and grants to state governments and Indian tribes during the fiscal year period from 1982-85. The aid would not be available automatically. It would be provided only "as a last nrsort to assure public facilities and services which cannot be funded under other programs, "Hart Raid. Whether states and lx:al com munities would be willing to accept aid under such conditions remains to be seen. Similar legislation has not been introduced in-troduced in the House for the past two Congresses, to date at least, and local support for such aid has waned som-what som-what over the years after it became plain the Senate, at least, would not pass a bill with open-ended prpvisions. Currently such aid is provided, on a limited basis thru FHA, only for impacts caused by coal and uranium development activities. Hart would expand the aid to oil shale and other "major" energy developments. The bill has two Committees, the Energy Senate Committee and the Senate Government Affairs Committee, Com-mittee, where its chances are only so-so under GOP leadership. Hart is aware that the Republican Senate majority, being concerned about federal budget deficits, is not eager to take on any new federal programs, even one as worthy as energy impact aid to the West and to the Appalacian region. So he told the Senate the bill that he introduced on May 20 "should be taken only as a starting point for discussions on whether and how the Program should be changed, not as any indication in-dication that the legislation is in finished form. "In fact, I am currently engaged in discussions with energy companies, state and local governments, and other interested groups to determine what changes should be made in the legislation. These discussions are covering a wide-range of possible approaches, including such fundamentally fun-damentally different approaches as using changes in federal tax laws to encourage companies themselves to finance the local facilities and services which, under the legislation being introduced in-troduced today (May 20), would be financed by federal funds. After further consideration of different dif-ferent approaches, we may propose modifications to the bill being introduced in-troduced today, or perhaps a completely com-pletely different bill," Hart told the Senate. The "feds" have an obligation to help "front-load" costs of local energy impacts because the development of such energy sources domestically "will benefit greatly the national economy," Hart said. Such new developments, usually more schools, more police and more community services, such as health and hospital care, come to $7,000 for each new resident, according to Department of Knergy Projections, Hart said. For 20,000 new people that would carry an impact price tag of $H0 million. |