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Show President Taft's second veto disapproved a bill for non-Federal power development at a point on the Coosa River (Alabama), where compre- hensive plans by the Army Engineers contem- plated one of a series of navigation dams. He noted that this bill presented the typical case of a river where development by the Federal Gov- ernment for navigation should go hand in hand with its development for water power. In both instances, the President also objected to the failure to provide for adequate compensa- tion for proposed private benefits. Joint Public-Private Effort The answer to this broad policy question, di- rectly affecting the Federal water resources pro- gram, will have a profound effect on the part which the country's still undeveloped wealth of water power will be able to play in meeting the tremendous expansion in the Nation's power re- quirements which lies ahead. Maximum use of the remaining water power will require its devel- opment as part of Federal comprehensive river basin programs. This is true because multiple- purpose development makes all constituent project functions more economical than if de- veloped singly. Also, the cost of investment funds, which constitute a large part of the cost of producing hydroelectric power, will be lower with public development. The Federal Power Commission estimates that by 1970 the Nation will require a total installed central station power capacity of 160 million kilo- watts to supply total energy requirements of 725 billion kilowatt-hours a year. That means an increase of about 93 million kilowatts of capacity and 400 billion kilowatt-hours a year of electric energy over the next 20 years. This tremendous increase in power requirements will be met in part by water power and in part by steam. If present practices based on the most economical use of water power are followed, this will mean the development of about 25 million kilowatts additional hydroelectric power and 68 million kilowatts additional steam plant capacity. To assure the country's ability to meet this PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HYDRO POWER PRODUCTION Source: Federal Power Commission FIGURE 22. demand will require the joint efforts of both public and private power enterprises. The addi- tional steam electric capacity may be expected to be a main responsibility of private power systems. The relationship of hydroelectric power to mul- tiple-purpose development means that the public contribution will be particularly in water power. In this connection the trends of private and public hydroelectric power are significant. Down to 1920 private utility companies had developed 3,511,160 kilowatts of hydroelectric capacity, while public development had reached a total of only 192,371 kilowatts. During the next 10 years private interests had increased their total by 4,185,419 kilowatts, to a total of 7,696,579 kilowatts. That was the decade of greatest pri- vate development. In the same period public agencies, Federal and local, added a little over 696,214 kilowatts to bring their total to 888,585 kilowatts. The 10 years 1930 to 1940 saw publicly owned hydroelectric development rising to 2,754,889 239 |