Power is bought for less than worth
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
2 of 3 free articles.
Editor,
Here is some interesting news the Secretary of the Interior shared with us in 1985, sitting in the office at the Flathead Joint Board of Control.
Regarding hearings before the House Subcommittee on Indian Affairs of the Committee on Public Lands on H.R.658, H.R. 658, H.R. 4736, H.R. 5669, S. 1870, 80th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1948); Herbert J. Slaughter of the Office of the Solicitor, Department of the Interior, stated: This last clause is not intended when it speaks of wholesale — it does not cover the selling of the energy as much it does acquiring of the energy. In other words, the Flathead project does not produce most of the energy it sells. It gets it under a contract with the Montana Power Co., which because of various water right transactions and other special features when that contract was made, the Flathead project gets its power from the private utility at an exceptional low rate. Now, the purpose of this clause is to enable the water users to realize on that profit that comes in because of the fact that the power is bought for less than it is reasonably worth. The water flows to the mouth of the Columbia River before those use and control rights are lost. Now this helps solve the issues of why the U.S.A. has been willing to change state-based rights into federal control with more corruption.
Gene Erb
Dixon
