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<br />Or!')~,,:'~ <br />U V._ . ) <br /> <br />setting process. The task force recommended that: <br /> <br />. . . (PMA's adopt) . . . approved cost accounting methods <br />that are consistent with the statutory requirements to <br />recover costs including interest and the amortization of the <br />capital investment over a reasonable period of years . . . . <br />The preparation of revenue and cost statements based on <br />current performance and forward estimates limited to one <br />year (Ed. Rather than through the ultimate development of <br />the entire project) will remove any further need for <br />preparation of repayment studies (PPSSCC, 1983, p. 44). <br /> <br />The conclusions and recommendations of the task force apparently echoed those <br /> <br /> <br />of some earlier reports and audit findings by, among others, the General Accounting <br /> <br /> <br />Office, Office of Management and Budget, the DOE Inspector General, the Federal <br /> <br /> <br />Energy Regulatory Commission and the House Committee on Appropriations. Some of <br /> <br />these earlier reports date back 30 years or more (PPSSCC, 1983). <br /> <br />Similar concern over the use of the power repayment study, and ultimate <br /> <br />development concept where used, was expressed by the Federal Energy Regulatory <br /> <br />Commission in a notice of proposed rule making recently published in the Federal <br /> <br />:1 <br /> <br />Register. The notice stated in part: <br /> <br />Use of a PRS can be a useful regulatory tool in ensuring <br />that a PMA's rates cover its costs, including the cost of <br />repaying the federal investment. 11 the estimates are <br />accurate, the federal investment will be paid in a manner <br />that is timely and fair to the federal taxpayer. The <br />Commission has, however, experienced problems with its use <br />in the past. There is no annual schedule of capital <br />repayment. The test of sufficiency of revenues is whether <br />the capital investment can be repaid within the overall <br />repayment period established for each power project, each <br />increment of investment in the transmission system, and each <br />block of irrigation assistance. This approach to repayment <br />scheduling has the effect of averaging the year-to-year <br />variation in cost and revenue over the repayment period <br />(Federal Register, Vol. 48, No. 207, October 25, 1983, <br />p. 49302). <br /> <br />-9- <br />