OCR Text |
Show fact, the policy is essentially simple and straightforward. In order that it shall be fully understood, however, it must be viewed in the light of historical background. The generation of hydroelectric energy as an incident of Federal water resource projects and the disposition thereof, "giving preference to municipal purposes," was first authorized as far back as April 16, 1906, in an act of Congress entitled 'An Act providing for the withdrawal from public entry of lands needed for town-site purposes in connection with irrigation projects under the reclamation act of June 17,1902 and for other purposes' (34 Stat. 116), and, shortly after that, the Comptroller of the Treasury held that receipts from the sale of such power should be classified as repayments. Therein lie the beginnings of a policy which has been elaborated through the years, as required to meet the needs of society, until today, under the Federal Reclamation Laws, power plays .an increasingly vital function both in the physical and in the financial aspects of water resource projects. With existing general Federal Reclamation Law on the subject of authorization, construction, operation and maintenance of hydroelectric power plants, including transmission lines, and governing rate-making and the distribution of power (and subject to its modernization and modification in certain respects such as to provide, among other things, for the establishment of a basin account), the Upper Colorado River Commission is satisfied. If other regions believe that they require different treatment of the subject, then they should, of course, have an opportunity to demonstrate the desirability of legislation that will permit such treatment there. The present state of Federal Reclamation Law on this subject, is, however, in general, well suited to development of the Upper Colorado River Basin. This is so, because the present state of such law, while recognizing fully the vital role of power in itself, protecting against the monopolization of its benefits, affording preferences to municipalities and other public corporations, to REA's and other non-profit organizations, also recognizes the vital role that power plays in the financing of water resource projects as a whole, making feasible from the financial point of view many desirable .and worthwhile projects that must otherwise fail to measure up to standards of feasibility. Long delayed development of the water resources of the Upper Colorado River Basin depends in large measure upon the application to that development of the established policy of the Reclamation Law that power plants shall be constructed as an incident thereof wherever the generation of power proves feasible; that preference in the distribution of such power shall be accorded to -21- |