OCR Text |
Show 606 Power.-Remarkable variation exists among the statutory prescriptions of rate standards under which federal power is marketed. One standard is fixed for reservoirs under control of the Army; another for Reclamation projects; several other differing ones for groups of projects and individual projects; and none in another case. (Army Projects)-By the 1944 Flood Control Act, it is re- quired that surplus power and energy from dam and reservoir projects under Army control be delivered to the Secretary of the Interior, and that he transmit and dispose power and energy:603 in such manner as to encourage the most widespread use thereof at the lowest possible rates to consumers con- sistent with sound business principles * * *. While this requirement must be considered in fixing rates, the statute does not define "sound business principles," or any of the other terms. It is further required that:60i Rate schedules shall be drawn having regard to the re- covery (upon the basis of the application of such rate schedules to the capacity of the electric facilities of the projects) of the cost of producing and transmitting such electric energy, including the amortization of the capital investment allocated to power over a reasonable period of years. The amortization requirement has been construed in prac- tice to require that interest be one of the costs which must be returned to the United States.605 The interest component on power revenues is, therefore, not available to aid in the return of other costs, as is possible by administrative interpretation of minimum-rate standard of the 1939 Reclamation Project 608 Act of December 22, 1944, § 5, 58 Stat. 887, 890, 16 U. S. C. 825s. 804 Id. 608 See, e. g., Re Bonneville Project, Columbia River, Oregon-Washington, Allocation of Costs, Docket No. IT-5955, 4 F. P. O. 950, 955 (1945). |