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<br />'W!.3)JCWl <br /> <br />DRAFT <br /> <br />PROTEST OF WESTERN RATE SCHEDULE SLIP-F5 <br /> <br />PURSUANT TO FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COKMISSION RULE 211 <br /> <br /> <br />Docket No. EF95-5171-000 <br /> <br />Legal Background <br /> <br />The 1922 Colorado River Compact and the 1948 Upper Colorado River Basin <br /> <br />Compact apportion to the Upper Division States specified quantities of <br /> <br />Colorado River water for beneficial consumptive use in those States. The <br /> <br />compacts apportion this water to these States lIin perpetuity" without estab- <br /> <br />lishing a time schedule or cutoff date for development. <br /> <br />The Colorado River Storage Project Act (CRSP Act, Public Law 84-485) was <br />passed by Congress in 1956 to facilitate full development of the water <br /> <br />allocated by compact to the Upper Division States. Section 5 of the CRSP Act <br /> <br />establishes the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund (Basin Fund) and provides for <br /> <br />the accumulation of revenues in the Basin Fund to repay the costs of current <br /> <br />water development projects and fund additional participating projects in the <br /> <br />future. Revenues from the sale of hydroelectric power produced at authorized <br /> <br />Federal projects are the principal source of these repayment revenues. <br /> <br />Section 6 of the CRSP Act requires the Secretary of the Interior to file a <br /> <br />report with Congress on January 1 of each year, and that report "shall be <br /> <br />prepared to reflect accurately the Federal investment allocated at that time <br /> <br />to power, to irrigation, and to other purposes, the progress of return and <br /> <br />repayment thereon, and the estimated rate of progress, year by year, in <br /> <br />accomplishing full repayment" (emphasis added). Section 7 of the CRSP Act <br /> <br />requires the Secretary of the Interior to operate the hydroelectric power- <br /> <br />plants and transmission lines authorized by the Act "50 as to produce the <br /> <br />greatest .practicable amount of power and energy that can be sold at firm power <br /> <br />and energy rates, but in the exercise of the authority hereby granted he shall <br />