August 1, 1969
Page 21885
POLLUTION OR BROWNOUTS
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, yesterday I introduced the Intergovernmental Power Coordination and Environmental Protection Act – S. 2752 – a bill designed to reconcile the needs of environmental protection and the generation of adequate supplies of electricity.
Lee C. White, the distinguished former Chairman of the Federal Power Commission, has proposed similar legislation, and his ideas and warnings were discussed in a July 30 article and a July 31 editorial published in the Washington Post. Echoing Mr. White, the Post noted in its editorial–
Congress has a responsibility to move ahead ... with legislation both to protect the environment and to provide an adequate supply of electricity.
With each month the problem becomes more critical, reaching a point where blackouts or brownouts occur with increasing frequency in periods of normally heavy demand. The Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee of the Government Relations Subcommittee of the Government Operations Committee will soon open hearings on the proposed legislation. I hope that all interested Senators will submit their views on this important legislation.
In the meantime, I commend the excellent article and editorial from the Post to the attention of the Senate and ask unanimous consent that they be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the editorial and article were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
[From the Washington (D.C.) Post, July 31, 1969]
MUST WE CHOOSE BROWNOUTS OR POLLUTION?
The recent power shortages in the Washington area and elsewhere in the East were no surprise to the Federal Power Commission. The retiring chairman of the FPC, Lee C. White, has been warning for some months that "brownouts" are inevitable unless the electric power industry and public agencies find some way of speeding the construction of generating facilities. Rationing of electricity, Mr. White has warned, may be the result.
Demands for power become enormous on hot days because of the widespread use of air conditioning. As an emergency measure it may be necessary for power companies to ask people to turn off their air-conditioning units (at the moment when they need them most), but this merely accentuates the urgency of a long-range solution. It is not merely a question of meeting maximum demands this summer, but also of preparing to cope with a phenomenal increase in the use of electricity. Current estimates are that by the year 2000 the United States will be using seven times the electricity that it consumed in 1965.
The industry is eager enough to provide the additional volume that will be needed, but it is no longer a question of merely selecting sites and building the essential generating plants. Some cities are limiting the type of fuel that generating plants may use to avoid further pollution of their atmosphere. There is much resistance to the location of power plants on rivers where they heat large volumes of water to the disadvantage of fish and other wildlife, and the building of gigantic power lines across the landscape encounters increasingly fierce opposition. The power companies have virtually asked for this opposition by the high-handed manner in which they have planned their plant locations and transmission lines in the past without public hearings and with little consideration for the resulting impact on the environment. Nevertheless, the public has an interest in an adequate supply of electricity as well as in an uncontaminated and uncluttered environment.
Mr. White sponsored legislation two years ago designed to give the F PC a larger role in determining the future of the industry. His bill would have required the power companies to disclose their construction plans in advance so that the impact on the environment could be adequately studied and discussed in the planning stage. In case of emergency it would also permit the FPC to override obstructions in local communities in the interests of the general welfare.
While recognizing the need for adequate consideration for esthetic and environmental factors, this approach would permit the timely resolution of controversies so as to avoid future power shortages.
The coolness of the power industry toward this bill appears to have kept it in limbo. But the problem remains, and no solution is at hand. In a recent speech Mr. White predicted that the electric utility industry will come to Congress within two years asking for help in its efforts to meet the mounting demands for power. Meanwhile Congress has a responsibility to move ahead on its own with legislation both to protect the environment and to provide an adequate supply of electricity.
[From the Washington (D.C.) Post, July 30, 1969]
ELECTRICAL FAILURES: WHITE WARNS OF RATIONING
(By Robert J. Samuelson)
The outgoing chairman of the Federal Power Commission yesterday warned that the United States may eventually have to ration its electricity.
Lee C. White, leaving the commission after three and a half years, said at his farewell news conference that the country is moving "headlong into a situation where we may not have (enough) electric energy to go around."
The glum prediction came less than two weeks after major East-coast utility companies temporarily asked customers to reduce consumption to prevent a major power failure. The companies said that the combination of some plant breakdowns and high summertime use – especially for air-conditioners – had strained the system almost to capacity.
NOT ALARMIST
White said he was not trying to be an alarmist and hedged his forecast by adding,"I do not see it (rationing) in the near future."
Nevertheless, he repeatedly emphasized that power companies, in an attempt to expand their generating capabilities, are encountering the increasingly strong opposition of conservationists.
Consumption of electricity, he said, increases about 7 percent annually. That figure, compounded over a decade, means a doubling of output every ten years.
"We are now doubling pretty big bases," White commented.
UGLY SIDE EFFECTS
Conservationists object to many of the side-effects of new plants – large, unsightly transmission lines, air pollution, and thermal pollution (for atomic reactors, which must recirculate hot water into rivers and lakes). White cited power projects in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, and California that have been stalled by political and legal challenges of local groups.
"When the big units aren't generating, you've got big problems," he said.
Utility companies, White said, must adapt to the new concern for the "environment" by accepting more conservationists into corporate ranks.
White also promoted a bill authored by himself and fellow-commissioner Lawrence J. O'Connor. The bill, now pending before Congress, would empower new regional councils, composed of power companies and state and federal regulatory bodies, to coordinate power development.
Congress, he emphasized, must "provide a mechanism whereby two social goals (more power and preservation of the environment) can be harmonized."
White will be replaced this Friday when John N. Nassikas, a Republican who recently served as the minority counsel for the Senate Committee on Commerce, is sworn in by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger.
White, a native of Nebraska, will remain in Washington and join a local law firm.