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<br />by the Bureau whose pO\rer production was calculated not onq to make <br />optimum use of the power potential, but to manufacture firm commercial <br />power in sufficient quantities to return to the Government the major <br />portion of the entire cost of the projeot. <br /> <br />As the Ameri.(! an industrial Ijiant grew and the blessings of elec- <br />tric pO\rer for heat, lieht and the energy to supply household appli- <br />ances spread through every village and hamlet, the demand far out- <br />stripped the capabilities of the generating plants. However, there <br />\rere a few outlyinG hydroelectric plants built by the Bureau of Recla- <br />mation which \rere not beinlj operated to capacity. They were far re- <br />moved from the load centers and transmission systems \rere not adequate <br />to carry pO\rer from the source to the demand. High tension transmis- <br />sion lines were then constructed to transmit the pO\rer to wholesale <br />marketing centers, and generating facilities \rere interconnected one <br />with another in order that their full capacities could be channeled <br />into the center of increasing load, It was only after the completion <br />of the 69,00o-v. line from Cody to Casper in 1939 that Pilot Butte <br />and Shoshone plants could be operated to capacity. After 1940, how- <br />ever, local demand increased and exportation had to cease. Now the <br />capaci ty of the two plants is not sufficient to supply even the de- <br />mand from the Big Horn Basin. <br /> <br />As the production of electric energy bec!lllle more and more firmly <br />established as a function of the Bureau of Reclamation and as the <br />Bureau sold more and more kilowatts of electric enerGY, a policy to <br />govern the transmission and sale of that energy began to evolve. It <br />included these major precepts: <br /> <br />1. Federal dams shall, where feasible, include facil- <br />ities for generatin~ electrical energy. <br /> <br />2. Preference in power sales shall be given to public <br />agencies and cooperatives. <br /> <br />3. Po~rer disposal shall be for the particular benefit <br />of domestic and rural consumers. <br /> <br />4. Pouer shall be sold at the lowest possible rate con- <br />sistent with sound business principles. <br /> <br />5. Power disposal shall be such as to encoura::;e wide- <br />spread use and to prevent monopolization. <br /> <br />In 1944, Coneress authorized the greatest dam building and recla- <br />mation project that the world had ever seen, Over 100 dams and other <br />reclamation features were authorized for construction on the main stem <br />of the muddy Missouri River and its tributaries. <br /> <br />54 <br />