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Show WATER FOR UTAH POWER UTAH CAN PRODUCE AND USE MORE POWER ... National Power Use Is Rising ... Electric power consumption in the United States has continued to rise to unprecedented heights. The total in 1947 exceeded that of the preceding year by 10%, outstripping war peaks by almost the same amount. Although toward the end of the war it was believed that a severe decline in consumption and power production would follow the closing down of war establishments, no such long- term dip occurred. On the contrary, power consumption has now reached a point where every section of the Nation suffers from power shortages of varying degrees of seriousness; the United States' capacity to consume electric energy has temporarily caught up with its ability to produce it. These shortages clearly indicate that the entire structure of electric utilities in the Nation must be expanded rapidly if normal growth of economic activity is not to be stifled. The tremendous urge of the American consuming public for the purchase and use of electrical appliances such as ranges, refrigerators, hot water heaters, quick- freezing boxes and a multitude of other devices was alternately starved and whetted during the war. On the one hand, manufacture of desired items was curtailed; on the other, lush advertising campaigns were not. The termination of the war and resumption of manufacturing gave release to pent- up demands; electric power requirements everywhere shot upward far beyond previous peaks. The demands of domestic and rural consumers, however, were not the sole reason for these increases; industry's take likewise reached new highs. The trends in power utilization of national manufactures, which resulted roughly in a doubling of their total annual requirements from 1939 to 1947, show no signs of slackening; on the contrary, they seem to surpass all previous records and expectations. The wide acceptance of electric brazing, welding, infra- red heating, high frequency annealing and heating of electric arc and resistance furnaces and the increasing utilization of individual electric motors in factory operations are compounding industry's total power requirements at a constantly accelerating rate. In addition, electro- processes - those in which electric power is a primary raw material ingredient - are being called upon by industry to provide a widening variety of essential metallic and chemical substances. From 1939 through 1947, the annual power requirements of these electro- process industries increased about three times, and this rate is not likely to diminish but rather will probably increase. New developments in industrial processing also are pressing for additional power supplies. For example, the production of synthetic liquid fuels from oil shales and coal will require very large quantities of dependable electric energy. Similarly, the urgent need for utilizing low- grade and complex mineral ores places a premium on the availability of electric power in reasonable proximity to the mineral deposits. By the same token, the increased mechanization of mines and beneficiation plants likewise create additional burdens on power supplies. The over- all national picture of power consumption is such that current estimates indicate the need for a fivefold increase in generating capacity in the United States by 1970, from a present 52 million kilowatts to perhaps as much as 250 million kilowatts. The immediate as well as long- range problem facing the Nation's private and public electric utilities is not one of seeking markets for potential output, but it is one entirely of providing large additional power facilities sufficiently fast enough to meet growing demands in the home, on the farm and in industry. The unquestioned importance of electric power supplies in the economic and national security structure of the United States underwrites the requisite effort to build up the Nation's power supplies. Wherever power supplies of reasonable costs are made available, the markets will not [ 88] |
