BOARD01706

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

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Affairs Committee of the Congress in response to
our proposal made prior to the authorization of
this legislation. I am quoting as follows from
House Report No. 1087. This Board will find some
of these comments here rather amusing:

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'The committee finds that this project is
unique in that that there is no public versus
private power conflict involved. Representa-
tives of the ten private power companies
operating in the area presented testimony
before the committee indicating their desire
to cooperate with the Federal Government in
the transmission and marketing of electric
power and energy from the Colorado River
Storage Project. Their proposal provides
essentially that the Secretary construct a
backbone transmission line connecting major
powerplants of the project and that use be
made of the existing systems of the companies
and additions thereto to market the power. The
companies assured the committee of their will-
ingness to serve preference customers either
through wheeling or through resales with
appropriate safeguards to protect the rights
and interests of the preference customers.
and of the desire of the private utilities
of the area to purchase power in excess of
that taken by preference customers.

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The proposal by the power companies seemed
entirely reasonable to the committee. The
proposal is consistent with the policy ex-
pressed by Congress for many years in appro-
priation acts and elsewhere whereby the Federal
Government builds the basic backbone trans-
mission system and distribution is made
through existing systems where satisfactory
arrangements can be worked out. The proce-
dure proposed is similar to that which has
worked very satisfactorily for the Central
Valley Project.

The Department of the Interior advised the
Committee that it was sympathetic to the pri-
vate power companies' proposal and indicated
that suggestions would be given studied