Evening star., 1936-05-15
FLAT POWER RATE
| POLICY ADOPTED
New Dealers to Prescribe
i"Postage.S Stamp" Method
+ on Projects.
by CARLISLE BARGERON.

The New Deals power policy which
the brain trusters are working on
and which will be sent to Congress
In a few days Irescribes postage
stamp rate formula, it is understood.
In other words, one general rate will
apply to all power served by a partic-
ular project regardless Of how far
away the consuming community Is
from the project.
The policy is to be defined in
bill relating to the Bonneville project
in Oregon. This plant Is expected
to furnish power as far East as Mon
tana. But the same rate will apply
to the Montana consumers as those
living adjacent to the project. mas
much as Mr.. Roosevelt has announced
that the administrations policy is to
be defined in this bill, this rate
formula will apply to the Tennessee
Valley projects and those proposed
In the pending Mississippi Valley bill.
In so far as the Bonneville Dam Is
concerned the policy is expected to
stir up an awful political stew. NO
gnall part of the lack OF Republican
opposition to the New Deal in the
Senate has been attributed to the
friendliness of Senator McNary, Op-
position leader, to the New Deal, and
the fact that one of the first things
Mr.. Roosevelt did when lie came in
was to approve the Bonneville project
has been credited as having largely
to do with this friendship.
Oregon Seen at Disadvantage.
Now, however, the brain trust
rate formula will not only undo, it
Is said, what advantage Oregon ex-
pected to get from the Bonneville
proiect, but will actually place the
State at a great disadvantage with
its neighboring State of Washington.
This State has the Grand Coulee dam
in development, project which for
mer Senator Dill of Washington sold
to the administration and which
caused Mrs. Roosevelt upon inspecting
the barren area around 1t, to observe
that Dill was certainly a good sales
man.
The New Deal rate formula, it Is
claimed, will give Washington State
the competitive advantage in that
Bonneville power can be produced
at one-half the cost of the Grand
Coulee> power.
New Deal Senators Bone and
echwellenbach of Washington have
naturally been pressing for the fiat
rate, and before the Senate sub
committee which has been studying
the question J. D. Ross, a member
of the securities commission and hav-
ing directly to do with the power
utilities, has been the protagonist
of the plan. Ross came here from
the managing dictatorship of the
Seattle municipal plant and is said
to be one of the country's outstanding
authorities on municipal power oper-
ations.
Observers who know the situation
on the Pacific Coast say that, polit-
3cally, the rate formula will mean
the loss of Oregon to the New Deal.
There are other suggested ramifi-
cations of the policy, in that 1t Is
believed it will strikc at competitive
fuels such as coal and gas, particularly
when with the development of other
projects it will become virtually
countrywide in scope.
Argument for Policy.
In favor of the policy. it is argued
that Federal funds, that is, funds
collected from the taxpayers in all
the States, 60 to the building of
'these projects and that consumers
in neighboring States should there
fore get the power at the same rate
as those in the area bordering upon
sthe project. If such a philosophy
ras this Is to be applied, however,
Senators who have pressed for these
projects in the past on the assumption
they were getting something peculiarly
advantageous to their particular State
will undoubtedly look at the matter
In an entirely different light. Such a
project ceases to be an accomplishment
on the part of the Senator if all the
surrounding States enjoy the same
advantages. or, as is claimed in the
case Of the Bonneville project, the rate
policy works to the disadvantage of the
State
In the case of McNary the accom-
plishment in getting Mr.. Roosevelt's
approval Of Bonneville Dam is believed