August 5, 1976
Page 27417
DICKEY-LINCOLN SCHOOL POWER PROJECT NEEDED
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, we in Maine repeatedly see our efforts to establish a public power project in New England rebuffed by private power interests. The current crisis in New York should underscore the error in the private companies' contention that they can produce enough power. The Lewiston Evening Journal spelled out the need for the Dickey-Lincoln School project explicitly in an editorial published on July 30. I ask unanimous consent that the editorial be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the editorial was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
HOT WEATHER AND DICKEY
This hot weather certainly is emphasizing the problems some of the heavily populated areas along the eastern seaboard are having with respect to procuring sufficient electrical power. Right along the private power companies in this region and some of their congressional stooges have insisted that private power alone can meet the demand for power. This has been the gist of their basic argument against the Dickey-Lincoln School federal power proposal.
We wonder if these unyielding opponents of Dickey feel rather uncomfortable when reports of power problems come in as they have during the current heat wave.
If there is no need for a project like Dickey, how is it that New York's mighty Consolidated Edison Co. had to request Tuesday that major building users cut back on the use of air conditioners to reduce voltage and to purchase more than a million kilowatts from sources outside the city?
If Dickey is a lot of foolishness and uneconomical, as opponents claim, why is it that the New England Power Exchange, made up of the region's private utilities, had to reduce voltage by 5 percent Tuesday, and in some instances on Monday as well? Wouldn't some power from a hydroelectric source such as Dickey have been a valuable resource these past few days?
We suggest New England and Middle Atlantic state citizens might give some thought to these questions. If they do so they may conclude their congressmen should be voting for rather than against Dickey.