July 23, 1973
Page 25360
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I am pleased that the Senate Appropriations Committee has included in H.R. 8947 a sum of $800,000 for the Army Corps of Engineers to complete its planning and engineering design for a hydroelectric power generating plant on the St. John River in northern Maine.
The Dickey-Lincoln School project, as it is known, has been authorized by the Congress since 1965. At a time when the "energy crisis" is very much a topic of public debate, I would like to reiterate to my colleagues the anticipated benefits of this project – 830,000 megawatts of power for New England and New York State from a non-polluting generation source.
Last week, the Senate completed debate on the trans-Alaskan oil pipeline. We heard a great deal of talk about the environmental hazards associated with petroleum as well as the critical need for taking prompt action to increase our Nation's supplies of oil for fuel. At the same time, the Senate recognized that one of the major factors causing the increased demand for petroleum products is the use of fuel oil by electrical power generating plants.
Mr. President, too often, the solutions proposed to the "energy crisis" are seen in terms of "tradeoffs" between the environment and energy. The Dickey-Lincoln School project, I would like to emphasize, involves no such tradeoff and would meet the objectives of both those concerned with the environment and those concerned with the limits on the supply of fossil fuel.
The Dickey-Lincoln project would provide power without any added drain on our supplies of oil. Moreover, none of the safety and health hazards associated with nuclear power generation are present.
If the Congress is truly serious about dealing with the energy crisis, then I would urge them to consider the Dickey-Lincoln School project as an alternative to more fossil fuel and nuclear power plants.
The costs associated with the construction of such alternatives explain, in part, the continuing favorable benefit-cost ratios assigned to this project. Mr. President, at this point I ask unanimous consent that a summary of the latest analysis of the Dickey-Lincoln School project supplied to me by the Army Corps of Engineers be inserted in the RECORD at the conclusion of my remarks. The analysis, prepared by the Army Corps of Engineers, gives clear justification for the project on economic grounds.
For the past 9 years, my colleagues in the Senate have consistently supported the project, and I appreciate the support for the full $800,000 appropriation which they have given it today.
There being no objection, the summary was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
[Tables omitted]
The Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes hydroelectric power project alone is clearly economically feasible having a benefit to cost ratio of 1.9 to 1 at a 3 1/4percent interest rate. The 3 1/4 percent interest rate has been retained in accordance with provisions included in the Water Resources Council's revisions to the discount rate used for Federal water resource projects effective 26 December 1968. The then prevailing interest rate could be retained on any project for which reasonable assurances of local cooperation were received prior to 31 December 1969. These assurances were received from the State of Maine. However, even at a 5 1/2 percent interest rate the benefit-cost ratio would be 1.2 to 1.