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. . C;;'~ . WESTERN RESOURCES Wl'IAJI!UP -- ,:::'1::r:: From: Helene C. Monberg Series XXI, No. 43 I) ~L.^~ l23-sixth Street Southeast Date: 10-27-83 ;;2) j<:e.:r-- Washington, D.C., 20003 public power preference battle,ps.1-4 ~ ;.J!Area Code 202-546-1350-1 other developments, p. 5 Washington--The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Oct. 26 beat a hasty retreat in its attempt to water down th; federal public power preference laws giving public bodies preference to purchasE federally generated power. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), the American Public Power Association (APPA), and five key officials repre- senting rural electric ooperatives, municipal electric systems and con- sumer-owned electric systems headquartered in South Dakota had indicatec in recent days they would Oppose the new water authorization bill(S 1739) now being marked up by the Committee unless the Committee changed several provisions in the bill pronto. The Committee yielded. By a 11-0 vote it adopted a series of amene. " .~ ,.\ ments sponsored N .Dak., and Max by Sens. James Abdnor, R-S.Dak., Quentin N. Burdick, D- They Baucus, D-Mont.//provided fOr no change in the prefer- ence law, provided for the "ultimate development" of the Pick-Sloan Mis- souri Basin program, and provided that any water supply and irrigation features built into the G~egory County hydro project in South Dakota must be built by the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation. The Abdnor-Burdick-Baucus amendments also provided for project repayment Over a period of "not more than 50 years" rather than 30 years from the date of project completion, as provided in the Committee print dated sept. 23, 1983, of the bill in mark-up. CONCERN ABOUT PREFERENCE, PAYOUT, RATES Much of the wording in these amendments had been proposed to the Committee staff by Edward Weinberg, former Interior Department Solicitor law now in private/practice here. He had looked over the bill as it had cleared the Water Resources Subcommittee chaired by Abdnor on Sept. 20 and had concluded that the bill would continue to water down the prefer- ance clauses in the 1939 Reclamation Act and the 1944 Flood Control Act. ~PPA and NRECA are particularly sensitive about the preference clause because it was watered down in the Pacific Northwest Power Act of 1980 (PL 96-501), which provided for a regional rather than a public prefer- -;:> .