STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seventy.

An Act relative to the licensing of certain power and transmission facilities. Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened :

1. Amend RSA by inserting after Chapter 162-D (supp) the following new chapter:

CHAPTER 162-E. ELECTRIC POWER FACILITY SITE EVALUATION AND LICENSING PROCEDURE

162-E: 1. New Construction. No person, corporation, or public utility may commence construction of a new electric power generating facility in excess of 50,000 KW at a specific site or of an electrical power transmission line with a rating of 150 KV or more over a route not already occupied by transmission lines until it obtains a construction license from the Public Utilities Commission. 162-E:2. Application for New Facility Construction License. An application for a new facility license shall be made in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Commission, and shall include a general description of the proposed project defining location and type of facility proposed to be constructed. Upon receipt of the application, the Commission shall send a copy of the application to each of the following officials: the Commissioner of Resources and Economic Development, the Director of Fish and Game, the Director of the Office of Planning and Research, the Chairman of the Water Resources Board, the Director of the Water Supply and Pollution Control Commission, the Director of the Radiation Control Agency, the Executive Secretary of the Air Pollution Control Commission, the Commissioner of the Department of Health and Welfare, the Director of the Division of Parks, the Director of the Division of Resources, and the Chief Engineer of the Public Utilities Commission.

162-E :3 The Public Utilities Commission shall either grant a construction license within (12) months of receipt of said Commission of an application for a new facility construction license or notify applicant within twelve (12) months that the application has been disapproved by the Public Utilities Commission. 162-E:4 (a) The Commission shall hold a public hearing on each application but may combine hearings.

(b) Before the Public Utilities Commission grants a construction license, it shall find that the construction:

(1) Will not unduly interfere with the orderly development of the region with due consideration having been given to the views of municipal and regional planning commissions and municipal legislative bodies;

(2) Is required to meet the present and future demand for service;

(3) Will not adversely affect system stability and reliability and economic factors; and,

(4) Will not have an undue adverse effect on esthetics, historic sites, air and water quality, the natural environment, and the public health and safety.

162-E:5 The so-called Seabrook nuclear site and the so-called Newington generating site are excluded from the requirements of this act as are all transmission line routes that the Public Utilities Commission has been notified of and construction is scheduled to start by April 1, 1972.

162-E:6. This act shall take effect on its passage.

ELECTRIC POWER FACILITY SITE EVALUATION COMMITTEE

The Governor of the State of New Hampshire would appoint an Electric Power Facility Site Evaluation Committee composed as follows:

The Commissioner of Resources and Economic Development.

The Director of Fish and Game.

The Director of the Office of Planning and Research.

The Chairman of the Water Resources Board.

The Director of the Water Supply and Pollution Control Commission.

The Director of the Radiation Control Agency.

The Executive Secretary of the Air Pollution Control Commission.

The Commissioner of the Department of Health and Welfare.

The Director of the Division of Parks.

The Director of the Division of Resources.

The Chief Engineer of the Public Utilities Commission.

The Director of the Water Supply and Pollution Control Commission shall be chairman of the Committee.

The Committee shall have the following power and authority:

I.

The members of the Committee, or their designees, shall establish procedures for the review of the proposed electric power facility, including a schedule of consultation with the applicant. Each member of the Committee shall consider the relationship of the proposed facility to the quality of the environment of New Hampshire and the safety and well-being of its citizens. Each member of the Committee who has a statutory responsibility for protecting any aspect of the physical environment from pollution or degradation shall, consistent with that responsibility, seek to reach an understanding with the applicant as to the location, design, construction, and operation of the proposed electric power facility.

II.

The Committee may consult with local agencies and officials concerning proposed sites and obtain any information necessary for its decisions from the applicant and other States agencies and related agencies in adjacent states.

III.

After consultation with the applicant, the Committee shall determine the amount and kind of information required concerning the site and shall formulate a plan, including cost estimates to enact the plan, for acquiring the necessary information. The plan may be determined in joint consultation with the applicant, and it shall include the cost of implementing the plan and the time schedule. Said plan shall be submitted to the Public Utilities Commission for approval within sixty (60) days after being received by the Committee. Upon approval by the Public Utilities Commission, the plan shall be implemented in accordance with a time schedule set out therein, and the costs shall be assessed against the applicant. The plan may be amended upon the joint agreement of the Committee and the applicant subject to approval of the Public Utilities Commis sion.

IV.

If a majority of the Committee reaches an understanding with the applicant, the chairman of the Committee may put the several understandings in the form of a writeen agreement. Such agreement may state the concurrence of the members of the Committee in a proposal for an electric power facility, but such concurrence shall not take the place of any procedure established by law for the granting of a permit or license. The concurrence may include a commitment by the members of the Committee to support a proposed electric power facility in proceedings before the Public Utilities Commission.

V.

The Committee may hold a public informational meeting in the geographic area of a proposed generating facility before issuing a report of its findings to the Public Utilities Commission. The Committee may hold a public informational meeting of a proposed transmission line when requested by duly authorized officials of any community through which the transmission line runs. The report shall state the findings of the full Committee or its member agencies. It may recommend those measures necessary to protect the public safety and ensure the general welfare of the citizens of the State including, but not limited to, siting, construction, operation, monitoring, and surveillance of interstate or regional agreements relating to application. It shall present its report no later than ten (10) months from the date of application for the construction license, unless an extension of time is approved by the Committee with the consent of the applicant.

Senator MUSKIE. Our next witness is Mr. Frank Sahlman, executive vice president of the Northeast Public Power Association, accom

panied by Mr. Michael Collins, manager of the Wakefield Municipal Electric Department, and Mr. Walter Cook, manager of the Vermont Electric Coop. Are we missing one?

Mr. SAHLMAN. We are missing two. We expected to be on the program at 2 o'clock but we have a problem. We do have Mr. Robert G. Taylor here, a member of the firm of R. W. Beck.

Senator MUSKIE. Proceed.

STATEMENT OF FRANK M. SAHLMAN, SR., EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NORTHEAST PUBLIC POWER ASSOCIATION, ACCOMPANIED BY ROBERT G. TAYLOR

Mr. SAHLMAN. My name is Frank Sahlman. I am the executive president of the Northeast Power Association in Boston. I have previously been an official on the U.S. State Department in charge of bringing electricity to underdeveloped countries, and previous to that I have been a manager of a rural electric cooperative in Vermont. I have had experience with large corporations such as Westinghouse and General Motors in the electric field as an engineer.

I have fought the battle of New England for a long time, fighting for St. Lawrence and fighting for the Dickey-Lincoln School, where we feel a little bit disturbed, probably, because Dickey-Lincoln has not been built.

Northeast Public Power Association is an organization of consumer electrical utilities situated in the Northeast. I appear here today in support of S. 2752. Our organization has supported similar legislation in the past. The leaders of the public power group in the Northeast have fought a valiant battle, have won impressive victories. They have fought this battle for decades. They have been the consumers' protector far more than anyone realizes.

Wo are indebted to you for your courage and foresight as one of the first people in the United States to recognize the problems of pollution, the resultant disturbance to the environment, and the total chaos that would result by apathy and neglect. We also are indebted to you as being one of the best friends of the consumer-owned power systems. Your continued support of the Dickey-Lincoln School must be continued.

The Northeast Public Power Association has tried to bring together a group that will be representative of the consumer-owned electric business, and I'm sorry the two other members are not here. Maybe they will be here in a minute. Mr. Michael Collins is the manager of the Municipal Electric Department in Wakefield. I hope if he doesn't show up that his testimony can be placed into the record along with Mr. Cook's.

Senator MUSKIE. They will, of course.

Mr. SAHLMAN. He has a list of impressive titles which include vice president of the American Public Power Association and secretarytreasurer of the Municipal Electric Association of Massachusetts and others. He was founding president of the Northeast Public Power Association.

Mr. Walter Cook is the manager of the Vermont Electric Coop. in Johnson, Vt. He has a bad kneecap and can't get on and off planes

very easy and might have a problem today, and that's why he's not here. He also has an impressive record. He has been one of the leaders in the public power fight in New England.

Mr. Robert Taylor is a partner of the firm of R. W. Beck, a wellrecognized engineering firm in the United States, and he is manager of the Boston office.

There is a tremendous backlog of electric consumption building up in New England. We have a power problem today, of course, and it's a very crucial problem, but the power problem tomorrow may be even greater. The expansion and demand for electric power is bound to increase at an even greater rate in the United States than ever before. Undoubtedly the demand will be unleashed with the end of the Vietnam war. Residential construction which has suffered badly will recover. The cntback of President Johnson's "Great Society" programs will be reinstated. The need for new programs will be greater than ever. By the end of the seventies there will be 26 million more Americans, 14 million new households. A new city of 250,000 people will be needed each month from now until the end of the century to accommodate the 100 million persons in the new communities in the next 30 years.

Even during the current financial slowdown, the forces powering business expansion in the United States are large. Programs for spending, now being held back, are important for modernization, to improve efficiency and to offset rising labor costs. Fifty billion dollars will be needed to arrest the rust and decay of our cities and to renew their viability in the eastern population corridor alone.

The need in New England, the Northeast Corridor, for new programs will be greater than ever because relatively high spinoff benefits from the war have gone to older industries, many of them established in this region. These industries will be the least able to adapt to new needs as war spending declines. What does it mean? It means new electric cities, electric cars, electric trains, and greater electric industries.

It is the future and we must prepare for it. Your bill, Senator Muskie, though only one, is essential to this preparation.

I might add, with this population growth comes pollution growth that has to be taken care of. We are much in favor of looking at that now, because if we are apathetic about this pollution or neglect it, we will have no environment, no people, no ecology. There are some 3 billion people on earth, and if each one took his part or had his share or did his share of the pollution that's going on here in the United States, you might not recognize the world today. I hope that your bill becomes a part of the legislation.

Senator MUSKIE. Thank you very much, Mr. Sahlman. Mr. Taylor, we might ask you to present your testimony and then maybe the other witnesses might arrive. I will address some questions then to both of you.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT G. TAYLOR, R. W. BECK AND ASSOCIATES

Mr. TAYLOR. My name is Robert G. Taylor and I reside at 39 Blackberry Lane in Framingham, Mass. I am partner and manager of the Boston Office of R. W. Beck and Associates, a consulting engineering