Job for the States?

In the Northwest, where the public v. private power battle has raged for years, Bonneville Power Administrator Paul J. Raver has been right in the middle of many a skirmish. Last week Raver made a suggestion to the Bonneville Regional Advisory Council which, coming from the area's top federal power man, was startling indeed. Said he: the Federal Government ought to clear out of the power business in the Northwest, turn over the job to an "interstate" agency.

The agency would have authority to build dams and possibly assume such other financial burdens as flood control, navigation, fish & wildlife and recreation --all of which now get direct appropriations from Congress. Its financing would come primarily from revenue bonds.

Raver's suggestion, made at a time when worsening power shortages are causing unemployment and brownouts in the Northwest, was the first admission from a top Government power official that federal ownership of power may not be the best thing for the nation. His plan may well meet with approval from the Eisenhower Administration. Oregon's Governor Douglas McKay, the incoming Interior Secretary, has already said he thinks it sound.

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