Laserfiche WebLink
<br />-)- <br /> <br />surroundings. We are completely convinced that policies and <br />discount rates that unreasonably inhibit resource development <br />adversely affect all three objectives. <br /> <br />Although we speak for an economically distressed, under <br />developed region of the country, we are convinced that the <br />proposals under consideration here today represent disaster <br />both for the High Plains States and the congested areas of the <br />country. <br /> <br />The seaboard states already have more people and higher <br />level of economic development than their resources can support, <br />producing social and economic problems in the central cities <br />and polluted air, dirty water and generally unattractive living <br />conditions. <br /> <br />The High Plains States have under-utilized resources and <br />a declining economy. The two Dakotas have both lost population <br />during the last decade, as did the entire region if you exclude <br />three or four major metropolitan centers. More people live in <br />the District of Columbia than live in either Dakota, and twice <br />as many people live in Washington, D.C., as make their home <br />in Wyoming. <br /> <br />The Council has proposed that the future benefits from <br />water resource development be discounted at a 7% annual rate. <br />You speak of the cost of money to the Treasury and the oppor- <br />tunity cost of money. The whole effort assumes that projects <br />will not be built unless they can produce a favorable benefit- <br />cost ratio, with future benefits discounted at a 7% rate. <br /> <br />The Mid-West Electric Consumers Association disagrees <br />completely with the Council's entire approach to economic <br />evaluation. We believe that decisions to proceed or not to <br />proceed with publicly-financed projects and programs should <br />be based on social and economic needs and the total national <br />interest -- not contrived economic evaluations. <br /> <br />We fail to understand why the future benefits from Federal <br />investments in water resource projects should be discounted at <br />rates substantially higher than the actual cost of money to the <br />Treasury. Why is our generation, and particularly this Admin- <br />istration, so reluctant to make significant investments in the <br />country's futur~ well being? <br />