APPENDIX F

STATEMENT OF JOHN N. NASSIKAS

CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL POWER COMMISSION

HEARINGS BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY, NATURAL
RESOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE

UNITED STATES SENATE
JANUARY 30, 1970

MR. CHAIRMAN:

We appreciate this opportunity to share with this Committee our experience in the electric and gas utility fields as it relates to emerging policy questions having major impact upon recognized public interests. My remarks set forth our assessment of the efficacy of existing legislation in meeting these problems and give our recommendations for additional legislative action. My statement covers consumer protection actions of the Commission; reliability and adequacy of electric and gas service; electric and natural gas supply; 1/ environmental considerations including

1/ On November 13, 1969 the Chairman and the other Commissioners of the Federal Power Commission testified at hearings before the Subcommittee on Minerals, Materials and Fuels of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs on natural gas supply. The testimony, exhibits and supplemental information in response to questions by various members of the Committee are appended hereto as Appendix A. I request that this and the other appendices which accompany my statement be made a part of the record of this Committee.

plant sitings 2/ and utility operations together with

the resulting cost incidence of environmental measures; financial requirements of the electric and gas utility industries over the next twenty years; and general

administrative matters.

Our basic regulatory authority is set forth in two comprehensive legislative enactments, the Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791a, et. seq., and the Natural Gas Act, 15 U.S.C. 717(a), et. seq. Both statutes are conservation related and thus, are properly interpreted and applied in pari materia with other environmental and resource development measures.

Attached Appendix B sets forth a Commission staff compilation of projections of power industry growth,

2/ With reference to environmental effects of electric utility operations, the Chairman of the Federal Power Commission and F. Stewart Brown, Chief of the Bureau of Power, testified on October 28 and 29, 1969 at hearings before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (see pages 32-82). On November 7, 1969 Commissioner Carl E. Bagge, Chairman of the Working Committee on Utilities of the President's Council on Recreation and Natural Beauty, also testified before the Joint Committee (see pages 451-481). The Committee Print of this and other testimony presented by a series of witnesses on October 28, 29, 30, 31 and November 4, 5, 6 and 7, 1969, was released on January 13, 1970.