The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1949-07-01
Havre-Shelby Lines

flee for the Bureau of Reclamation
region 6, Billings, says farmer co
operatives should pay 51a mills TO
power with the government linz
from Havre to Shelby installed ant
operated by the Bureau, and The
savings over fifty years would ex
coed three times the cost of con
structing the required facilities.
Not only do the farmers in Hill
county and surrounding territory
have an immediate interest in the
Havre-Shelby line but people in the
cities of Havre and Chinook must
soon look to low-cost electricity as
the only practical alternative for the
fast dwindling supply of natural gas
for residential and commercial use.
E. B. Coolidge, president of the Mon
tana Gas Corporation serving those
two Montana cities, has warned of a
very limited supply of gas sufficient
to last only five or six years at
present rate of use.
But the problem is larger than
Havre-Shelby. The latter is the
focal point in the present power
struggle. Fit. Peck is now produc-
ing $4,000 kilowatts of power. Plans
call for raising that to $4,000 in the
future. Hungry Horse will have an
installed capacity of $4,000 kilo-
watts. Another $4,000 kilowatts of
government power will go into Can
yon Ferry if the people of Montana
raise enough fuss about it this week.
Experts say that even this power
potential plus the amount now pro-
duced by the private utilities is not
enough to meet all present Montana
needs and the requirements that a
full agricultural and industrial de-
velopment demand.
1t is not enough to construct the |
plants. For cheap power to reach |
the consumer, transmission lines are
necessary. At present private lines
in areas where government transmits
sion lines are being planned are
loaded at or near capacity so that |
duplication by public lines is not pos
sible. Already approved in the
House of Representatives are a
u c]A4SAi11SolOu 1ll1O II O4il 1I0liS1y 11O1SO
to Kerr dam near Poison and another
from Spokane to Kerr dam to Ana
conda. These lines will tie Hungry |
Horse to Bonneville and firm up
power in western Montana and make
low-cost Bonneville power available
in southwestern Montana where min
eral and fertilizer development only
awaits low-cost processing.
Translated into dollars and cents
here is what the government lines
mean: According to testimony pre-
sented at the hearings in congress
80 kilowatt-hours of residential pow
er in the e-Missoula area cost
S2.08 while the same power at Spo-
zane costs S1.64; 700 kilowatt-hours
IF commercial power costs $22.08 in
he Butte-Missoula area and only
515.49 at Spokane.
Wendell Berge, the former trust
)usting assistant attorney general
ays in his book, ECONOMIC FREE
DOM FOR THE WEST, that it costs
cents to produce a pound of alum
mum with Bonneville power while
Montana and Missouri Valley power
1946) would make the cost 20 cents
pound. Cheap power is the key 4
o Montana's future. II
The power company stresses the II
axes it pays and leaves the impress II
ion that taxes will be lost to the II
tate and the counties with the build II
ng of the proposed government H
over plant and transmission lines. II
The government power proposals II
mean more tax-paying ability for H
veryone. Strengthening the "a H
uarl electric co-ops now in Mon II
ana with low-cost power means II
treng thening the taxpaying ability H
f thousands of Montana farmers. H
.abor has a stake in low-cost power H
of only in residential use but as H
participant in industrial growth. H
his prospect will look very good to H
.bor the recession deepens and
uts labor purchasing power. Bust
ess will feel the impact of cheaper H
over, for spending money will be III
eleased for other necessities. New HI
usiness will appear, present bust HI