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Show authority of the Bonneville Administration to set up an integrated rate schedule for power from all projects in the Columbia Basin is uncertain. Theoretically, it might be compelled to set up separate rate schedules for power from each proj- ect as it is delivered into the common transmission system. This is unsound and should be rectified by Congress through legislation establishing a unified basis for marketing Columbia Basin power as a completely integrated system with consolidated costs and receipts in accordance with the regular practice of utility systems. RECOMMENDATIONS The Commission has based its reappraisal of Federal power and water resources policy on three fundamental considerations. First, while private operation of power systems has predominated throughout the history of the power industry in this country, we have had in fact a mixed system in which publicly operated power systems have played an important and influential part. Sec- ond, modern developments, in terms both of the characteristics of modern power supply systems and of river basin programs, require the Federal Government to undertake an increasing responsi- bility in the development and marketing of power in such a manner as to protect the right of citizens in any community to exercise their right of local autonomy in meeting their power requirements on a public or cooperative basis. Third, the coun- try's expanding power requirements can be best met by cooperation between Federal, local, public, cooperative, and private power systems, all com- mitted to the same objectives. To achieve these objectives, regional power re- sources should be viewed as a whole, regardless of ownership. It should be possible in every region to secure for all the benefits of carefully integrated power system development, either by agreement or by common ownership of facilities. The ulti- mate aim of all participants in the Nation's power supply responsibilities should be provision of ample supplies of power at the lowest cost of which each region is capable. In the interest of assuring this vitally important result, the Commission recommends that: 1. Full development of the undeveloped water- power resources of the country's streams, con- sistent with other important uses of water, should be considered as a major responsibility of the Fed- eral Government, and this responsibility should be exercised in such a way as to assure ample sup- plies of hydroelectric power well in advance of power market trends. 2. No licensing of private power projects which interfere with the full accomplishment of comprehensive multiple-purpose development of river basins, including marketing of the power in- cident to such programs in accordance with the purpose of Congress, should be permitted. To assure the carrying out of this recommendation no new licenses should be issued unless approved by the responsible river basin commission. This is in accord with the recommendation of the Hoover Commission Task Force on Regulatory Commissions. 3. Government hydroelectric plants should be designed to produce ultimate capacity and energy which will best fit into the requirements of existing and potential markets on the assumption of com- plete regional integration in the interest of the lowest possible rates to ultimate consumers. 4. Congress should continue its present policy of authorizing Federal power marketing agencies to construct transmission facilities, to grant pref- erence to public and cooperative distribution systems, and to foster particularly residential and rural consumption of electricity. It should, how- ever, clarify its intent in this particular. Congress should enable all agencies responsible for market- ing power from a river basin program to pool power from all basin projects for rate-making purposes so as to establish system-wide rate schedules. 5. The marketing of Federal power in accord- ance with the above principles should be carried out flexibly, as more fully set forth above, so as to assure sound adaptation of Federal power supply responsibility to the characteristics of the power resources of the basin or region and the most effective possible cooperation of all power systems, both private and public, in the region in the task of assuring ample supplies of power at low rates. 245 |
