Publicly-Owned Power Plants

Report Outline
The Power Issue in Congressional, State and Local Elections
Present Extent of Municipal Ownership
Factors Limiting the Spread of Public Ownership
Proposed Extensions of Municipal Ownership

The Power Issue in Congressional, State and Local Elections

The primary and general elections of the next four months will be marked by a series of tests of public sentiment toward the production and distribution of electric power by federal and local governmental agencies.

On August 7, Rep. B. Carroll Reece, Republican, outstanding advocate during the last session of Congress of private rather than federal operation of the Muscle Shoals plant, will seek renomination in the first congressional district of Tennessee. The Muscle Shoals issue will presumably affect other nominations in Tennessee, and in the Alabama primaries on August 12. On August 12 Senator George W. Norris, leading proponent of governmental power development, will seek renomination on the Republican ticket in Nebraska.

San Francisco voters will on August 26 pass on a proposed bond issue to acquire the local public utility distributing systems which now distribute power from a hydro-electric establishment already operated by the city. In Wisconsin, progressive Republican candidates will on September 16 ask for nomination on a platform calling for a state-owned superpower system, opposed by the conservative Republican candidates. Proposed extensions of municipal electric power enterprises may play a part also in the New York and Massachusetts primaries on the same day.