Arizona republican., 1911-10-13
The Contract for Electric Power.

The Contract for Electric Power.
While the letter to Mayor Christy
from Supervising Engineer Hin Of the
reclamation service finally disposes
of the qucstion-so far as the recIa-
nation service is concerned-as to
whether the government can sell
electric power to the city Of Phoenix.
the contract between the government
ANA the Pacific Gas & Electric COM
pany has not yet been passed upon
boy the courts; and until there has
been a judicial Interpretation of the
contract it must be an open question
as To whether the city is legally ex-
cIuded from buying power directly
from the government.
From every standpoint it is desir-
able that there shall De a judicial
determination of the SCOPE and status
of the contract
Tho reason why the reclamation
service entered into a contract with
the local lighting company on the
terms it did is perhaps not generally
understood. often as the matter has
been discussed in the papers-there
has been more or less effort to con-
fuse the public mind as to the facts.
The reclamation service. acting for
the Salt River Valley Water Users
association. decided to buy all the
irrigating canals in the valley for
the purpose Of merging them with
the Roosevelt reservoir project, so
that when the whole project should
Doe completed and paid for the water
users would own the reservoir and
diversion dams, own the reservoir and
power plants, and own the canals
When negotiations were taken up for
the purchase Of the canals on the
north side Of the river it was found
that the canal company could not
convey a satisfactory title, for the
reason that the company had some
years previously contracted to deliver
TO tn lighting company in perpet-
uity certain quantity of water for
The generation of power 1t was
clearly necessary for the reclama-
ton service TO reach an amicable
agreement with the lighting COM
pany. which had all the advantages of
position. So far as the farmers were
concerned, the reclamation service
made in their behalf a very desir-
able contract with the lighting COM
pany. The contract provided for the
lighting company to step out OF the
way and relinqush its rights to
power under the old arrangement. and
instead required the government to
deliver certain quantity of power
from the Roosevelt dam to the light
ing company. The price fixed for
this power was unusually high-ap-
proXimately ninety dollars per horse
power per year. This contract is
now yielding. for the benefit of the
ranchers, some sixty thousand dol
lars a year; so that, as we have
stated, it was a good contract for the
farmers. They win never be able, it.
is presumed, to contract for addi-
tional power at such a high price.
But while the contract thus entered
into between the government and the
lighting company was advantageous
for the farmers-the only people who
had a right to be consulted-it was
not a good contract for the people of
Phoenix. who had hoped that the in
stallation of the power plants con-
nected with the reservoir project
would bring into the market a large
amount Of cheap power. To this ex-
tent, therefore, the interests Of the
people Of Phoenix and the interests
Of the ranchers were antagonistic-