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1-<4 ~ ('~ Ql . .:::J ARBITRARY ASSUMPTION OF AUTItORITY BY THE DEPART- MEN1' OF THE INTERIOR TO PRESCRIBE NATIONAL POWER POLICY The power sales policy of the Bureau of. Reclamation and its: de-- termination to blanket this and other states with transmission lines are predicated on "Memorandum on Power Policy" issued by the Secretary of the a copy of which is attached as ExhIbit Interior under date of January 3, 1946, "A,"G In this memorandum the Department of Interior undertakes to define the policy: of Congress with respect to the sale and distribution of power produced by gover!1Inental agencies, From a diligent .search of the records, we are unable to find th:at Congress has ever adopted a broad power policy or delegated authority to the Department of the Interior to so do. Congress hl>s given authorization of certain policies in connection with specific projects, In the Reclamation A~s, Congress has stated that preference shall be given municipalities and other public corporations or agencies in. the sale of power, but. nowhere has it given the Department of Interior, 0.1' any agency thereof blanket authority: (1) to assist in cre$.ting public authorities (For example see Exhibit "13" attached); (2) to install steam standby; (3) to construct transmission lines - duplicate or other- wise -:to serve publil;: bodies; (4) to integrate hydro-electric plants withm a region, (5) to assume local regulatory powers; (6) to assume the responSibility for de"eloping loads and markets; and (7) to prohibit the making of long-term contracts with private agencies, With respect to the Bureau's contention, which has no Congressional authodty, that they must construct transmission lines to deliver power to public agencies, we wish to point out that Public Service Company of Colorado, alone, has mo.re than 800 connections serving public agencies. To serve even a small percentage of these public agencies would necessitate the Bureau duplicating a substa/iltial part o.f the Company's transmission system. Ample facilities to serve these consumers have been provided by the Company over the years of their growth, and any money spent to deliver power to them by the Bureau is a wasteful expenditure of taxpayers' money, J u . ;; This same directive limits contracts with private utilitieS to short- term periods which must provide for cancellation in order to make power avail- able fo.r preference custo.mers at any future date. This means that when a utility purchases po.werfro.m the Bureau o.f Reclamatio.n it must always have available other so.urces o.f po.wer to. supply its .custo.mers'requirements when the BUl'eau withdraws its pm<ler, In co.nnectio.n with cur planning fo.r future po.wer, the Bureau 0.1 Reclamation has informed us that according to present estimates 100,000 Kw of firm capacity from Big Tho.mpson Pro.ject is scheduled to. be available in 1952, but that by 1955 this capacity may dwindle to. 68,000 Kw. ~ . . o . - 9 - . . i