| Show Moon Lake manager charges private ownership of S power would cost customers extra were made at Denver meeting of river unit 0 iJ Construction of power lines for Colorado Storage Project by utility firms would saddle le k customers an additional million in it was today by E. J. General of i. Moon Lake Electric 1 n Denver fr a of the Committee of River Basin tutors which is t made up of some storage power customers j Ballard charged that private utilities hone to Wt control entire 1 project by building the profit-fable and key portions of its f backbone transmission lines a total investment on their of approximately mil- Five which operate in the storage marketing arc a battle In Congress to obtain permission to build the controversial transmission They are Power k Light Public Service of Arizona Public Service Public Service of New Mexico and Pacific m Power Light of Wyo- 1 rr The utilities will ask Congress reverse decisions by Former i Interior Secretary Fred A. Sea-M ton and the present calling for all-federal construction of the vast power transmission The will carry jer from the storage project to in New Mexico and including and k Power be will come from hydro- units of the project I the great Glen Canyon Dam thc Arizona Utah Flaming Gorge Dam in North-lern and the of dams on the Gunnison River in j In revenues will go to pay for the power system and participating irrigation projects which will further develop the water resources of the Upper Colorado River Ballard said his organization is solidly behind the Bureau of Reclamation's plan for ail-federal construction of the transmission which he described as being more and better in every than the combination federal-private scheme advocated by the utility Ballard pointed out that all funds already expended for power generation facilities on the storage project by the federal along with all proposed appropriations for a transmission system will be completely with interest from revenues of power should be kept in he this ds strictly a loan arrangement not a government subsidy or Every penny spent for power production and transmission facilities will be repaid with and both the federal government and the states involved would reap a tremendous tax harvest over the years from the boost this will give to the economy of the Ballard went on to private utilities are determined to erect toll gates between the power source and delivery thereby extracting a profit the long-delayed development of the water resources of the Upper Colorado River should be noted that these five firms are quite willing to let government build and pay for costly transmission lines over rugged and sparsely settled territory where there are few or no customers to be but they want to control final distribution facilities in populous areas with heavy power present move by the utilities is merely an attempt to mislead the public with false economy claims and to forestall action by Congress this year by confusing the issue in hope that they will finally win their point by Ballard said total estimated cost of the all-federal lines for a period including original maintenance and replacement charges would amount to utilities' advocated combination system for the same he would cost approximately or about million more than the all-federal Most of the additional Ballard would stem from the utilities' charges for the power over Claims by the utility firms that they can finance and build transmission lines and deliver power to customers at the same rate the federal government would charge for an all-federal system were termed by is simply no basis in fact for these he the all-federal the charge to delivery points lias' been set at 6 mills per a tremendous the utilities were to keep charges down to Hie level offered by the Federal customers of the utilities might have to make up ithe deficit through increased Ballard also brushed aside the utilities claim that they would pay millions of dollars in federal income taxes over the lay-out Pointing out that income tax payments are made only on he said it was difficult understand how the utilities could shaw a profit on the venture as claimed would deliver to customers at the same rate as that set by the federal fact Ballard the utilities know It is necessary for them to con- only key Units in the transmission system to control the entire project and thus to deny the benefits of interconnection of the storage project system with other Bureau of projects in the as well as other benefits which follow from an all-federal Advantages of an all-federal transmission system Ballard Optimum water saving and river Ability to provide better service customers at no extra Ability to sell more firm power thus enhancing project Ability to cam wheeling revenues for moving steam power of others over the as a common carrier for all to project customers in the 5 market area will be in need of power in and seriously in need in Ballard Colorado River Storage Project begins in 1963 and The utilities have already effected a delay in this major construction The task of building the transmission system is great in face of the time left to accomplish arriving at his recommendations to the Secretary of the it was necessary for the Commissioner of Reclamation to work with the utilities and others to explore every for a real saving to the Tills is as it should but having done the Commissioner's recommendations and the Secretary's to proceed with the all-federal system Should be accepted further One of the most serious charges levelled by the five companies has been to claim they were treated unfairly by the Interior Department when the decision was rendered to this trans mission system as an all-federal 1 This action took place near end of Eisenhower's administration when Fred A. Seaton was Secretary of the In The decision lias been reviewed and supported by the present Secretary of the Stewart L. The utilities claim that different yardsticks were used to evaluate their proposal than were used to judge the Bureau of Reclamation's proposal for an all-federal In answer to this the Denver on March 31 recorded its interview with Fred as Denver former Interior Secretary Fred A. Seaton denied that the investor-owned utilities were not treated fairly in He said they were given ample opportunity to present their case in many findings for an all-federal transmission based on conclusions that preference customers would be served at a cheaper are supported by the present Interior Stewart Ballard concluded his statement by is absolutely no justification charging power customers an additional million dollars for the privilege of using the utilities' system in order to reduce the government's one billion dollar investment in the storage project by approximately million t |
