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<br />MR. STAPLETON: <br /> <br />"Mr. Williams:" <br /> <br />MR. W. M. vlILLIAMS : "I have a ques tion tha t I would like to ask <br />of Larry Sparks by referring to a paragraph in <br />a letter he sent to Senator Ranger Rogers in <br />reply to his. I spoke to the Senator about <br />this. 'In 1956 the Congress authorized the <br />Colorado River Storage Project and directed the <br />Secretary of the Interior "to construct, operate <br />and maintain" the units of the Colorado River <br />Storage Project, including "powerplants, trans- <br />mission facilities and appurtenant works". Then <br />Mr. Sparks goes on 'The Act further states that' <br />the "hydroelectric powerplants and transmission <br />lines authorized by this Act, to be constructed, <br />operated and maintained by the Secretary, shall' <br />be operated in conjunction with other Federal <br />powerplants, present and potential, so as to <br />produce the greatest practicable amount of <br />energy that can be sold at firm power and <br />energy rates . . .".' Has that been inter- <br />preted any other way? It seems to me like the <br />Congressional Act itself says that this shall <br />be, the transmission lines and everything else, <br />constructed by the federal government." <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: <br /> <br />"Those are exact quotes from Public Law 485 <br />and that has long been our contention; that it <br />is illegal for the Secretary to pass on the <br />express mandate to him by the Congress to allow <br />private interests, not only to construct but to <br />own and operate, integral parts of this system. <br /> <br />Now we feel that interpretation only <br />carries as far as those lines which are entirely <br />used by the Storage Project or where the major- <br />ity of the power is from the Storage Project. <br />When you get into a case where there are exist- <br />ing transmission lines by the private companies <br />where we only need to utilize 10, 15 or 25 percent <br />of their capacity, then we say the private . <br />companies should wheel that power if they can <br />do it cheaper than we could build an entire <br />line. So we say there is a great distinction, <br />if it's a line only for Project power or the <br />line is being used mostly for Project power it <br />should be constructed by the Secretary. We <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />I <br />