BOARD01706

• Board Meeting Date: 8/2/1961
• Description: Table of Contents, Agenda and Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

2452

could be mistaken, I can't prove it, but if it
were not for the pressure of this pressure group
the preference users - I think these projects
would be receiving 6 mills at the bus bars for all
of this power without any transportation on the
power and I believe that the surplus would be
built up sooner, and that the revenue produced
would build our participating projects sooner.
But that seems to be over the hill now. The
price has been established, not at the bus bar,
but in this new system of distribution.

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I recall vividly the terrible bargain that
the bureaucrats, as Larry Sparks has called them, .
in the Reclamation Bureau, in the Interior Depart~
ment, made in the sale of the power in the Lower
Basin. They've been giving it away for years.
They're not entirely responsible for that. Con-
gress set up the standards and made the price
for that power sufficient to pay for the projects.
That would have been all right perhaps, if the
Lower Basin's projects had all been counted in
and all were finished but that's not true. The
Lower Basin has a lot of work to do yet and they
ought to get a decent price for that power that
they have been selling far under the price of
any power in any other part of the country all
these years. They ought to be getting the price
that they could finish and complete the distribu-
tion of water and the control of the water of the.
Colorado River, their share of it in the Lower
Basin.

So I feel that the Bureau is not coming
into this picture entirely with clean hands. I
have been trying to ascertain what the facts are.
I'm glad that I have been privileged to be here
today; I'm glad I've had the opportunity of
listening to Larry Sparks' arguments; I hope to
hear other arguments here and as a result of
these arguments, and a study of these facts, and
study of these figures, I hope to be able to cast
an intelligent vote if called upon to vote in the
Upper Colorado River Commission. We have been
anticipating a meeting now for three or four weeks.
But I hope that everyone of you who are here
today will be impressed with the difficulties

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