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<br />I <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />MR. BUGAS: They eliminate that possibility, but even under the Colorado <br />rules, that one single un~t out there, they Mere able to do that and meet <br />Colorado standards. However, it is very uneconomical to run a single <br />unit of the power plant. If the Colorado Public Service -- they are <br />going to have a decision to make. They want to put a second unit at <br />Brush. They are going to have to put scrubbers on both units. So I <br />think there is going to be a real decision there on their part. The <br />reason for that is that control rooms of power plants are so set up that <br />you could run the station with two units with the same number of people <br />it takes to run one. And so most of us try to build at least two units <br />at every station, construct them in multiples of two. <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: John, in the past 10 years, what percentage of increase have <br />you had in the customer charges? Have you got some figures in mind? <br /> <br />MR. BUGAS: Well, let me say that from 1965 to 1969, our rates remained <br />flat. In 1969, our wholesale rates, we decreased them by 7~ percent in <br />1969. And it stayed that way until 1974. NOW, in 1974, in this country <br />some drastic things happened -- with oil embargo in the fall of 1973 -- <br />and that is about the time we started constructing this Craig station -- <br />the oil embargo caused a tremendous inflation to take place because of <br />the increased cost of primary energy in the way of oil, and it has been <br />going up ever since. So we had two rate increases in 1974, two in 1975, <br />two in 1977; and we have one pending now. <br /> <br />Now, the sum total of those increases cost our energy on a wholesale <br />basis cost, delivered to go from 9 mills to 18~ mills. <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: <br /> <br />So we have had over a 100 percent increase since '74. <br /> <br />MR. BUGAS: <br />our energy <br />mills. <br /> <br />Right. Now, our projections are, if this continues, by 1983, <br />costs will go up to 30 mills. By 1990, they are going to 60 <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: <br /> <br />Incredible -- a 600 percent increase from 1974. <br /> <br />MR. BUGAS: And now I want to make sure that you understand that. That <br />is on the assumption that the inflation rates continue as they have since <br />1973 and that interest costs continue at the same rate and labor costs <br />continue at the same rate. And, frankly, that is.a very frightening <br />number when you look at it. You know, it really scares me, because we <br />are talking about wholesale energy costing far more than retail -- more <br />than double retail energy today. <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: What that boils down to is that every householder will be <br />looking -- if those projections are correct -- at a power bill in excess <br />of a hundred dollars a month. <br /> <br />MR. BUGAS: I might comment a little bit. You know, on this low sulphur <br />coal, strangely enough, the fact that they passed the very strict Federal <br />Clean Air Act Amendment helps us who burn low sulphur coal in western <br />Colorado, because the Colorado standards were SO stringent that we had to <br />put scrubbers on anyway. And when you could meet the federal standards <br />with low sulphur coal, low sulphur coal became a very premium product. <br /> <br />-9- <br />