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Show 1000 KWH FIGURE 21.-Downward Trend of Rates Correlated with Upward Trend of Home Electric Use. Future Development of Hydroelectric Power This brings us back to the question previously raised: Whether and to what extent Federal Power Commission licenses should be issued for private development of hydroelectric sites which would otherwise be integral parts of Federal comprehensive multiple-purpose river-basin pro- grams. In discussing this question, three points must be noted immediately: 1. Licenses will, in general, be sought only for the sites or projects which offer relatively low- cost power, leaving the higher-cost developments to the Government. This is so, if for no other rea- son, because higher interest rates to private bor- rowers reduce the range of water power resources susceptible of development. 2. Licenses will ordinarily be sought for sites or projects benefited or in many instances made possible by Federal conservation storage reregu- lating reservoirs constructed at public expense as parts of the flood control program. 3. Without such projects, the effectiveness of an interconnected Federal power program in the region might be impaired to the point where it would cause little, if any, change in private marketing and rate policies. In other words, the question of whether private companies should be allowed to develop critical sites raises the same issue as that of whether they should be allowed, as they urge, to buy Federal power at the generating station, or whether the responsible Federal agency should have authority to construct transmission lines, interconnect its plants, and be in a position to offer public and cooperative distributors the preferential oppor- tunity to market the power intended by Congress. FIGURE 20.-Increased Residential Usage Induced by Rate Reductions in the Southeastern States. Louisville Gas & Elec. Co. Carolina P. & L. Co. Duke Power Co. 1000 KWH 1000 KWH 1O0O KWH $6 3 $6 3 $6 3 237 |