Statement on a Conference to Discuss a Southeastern Power Pool.

President Roosevelt today called a conference of representatives of public and private interests to meet at the White House on September 30th, for the purpose of discussing the possible establishment of a Southeastern Power Pool through the cooperation of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the private utility interests in that region.

The conference is being called at this time because the existing contracts between Commonwealth & Southern and the Tennessee Valley Authority for interchange of power and common use of transmission facilities—a rudimentary form of power pooling-are due to expire soon.

If a satisfactory understanding regarding the pooling of power and transmission facilities in the Southeastern States can be reached at this conference, a basis will perhaps be laid for working out similar arrangements in other regions affected by major Federal power projects.

In explanation of the scope and purposes of the conference, the President said:

The public interest demands that the power that is being or soon will be generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority and at the Bonneville Dam and other Public Works projects should be made to serve the greatest number of our people at the lowest cost and, as far as possible, without injury to existing actual investment. To this end, I have for several months been conferring informally with representatives of the Federal Power Commission, the National Resources Committee, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Rural Electrification Administration, as well as with utility executives, engineers and economists.

These discussions indicate agreement to a remarkable degree that this objective can best be attained by cooperative pooling of power facilities within each region, including those of the Federal projects, the privately owned utilities, and the municipal plants, through the joint use of the existing transmission line networks under the control of the members of the pool. Such a pool, it appears, will smooth out the peaks and valleys of separate system operations, reduce the amount of necessary reserve capacity and postpone the need for investment in new generating facilities.

I am advised that by this means investment in transmission lines and generating facilities could be kept to a minimum, serv· ice strengthened, and large economies in operation effected. If so, these great savings, based on fair contractual relations between the public and private agencies participating, should make it possible to bring cheap and abundant power to the gate of every community in the region at uniformly low rates.

Engineers and rate experts tell me that by such pools power could be made available throughout great regions at wholesale rates as low as, if not lower than, the wholesale rate at which the T.V.A. is now supplying power to communities, private utilities, and industries. The regional network would also promote rapid expansion of the Government's rural electrification program.

There is every reason why we should thoroughly explore the possibilities of working out a sound plan for such regional power pools. I am, therefore, calling a conference to consider this subject and attempt to devise a plan that will promote the public and private interests involved.

We are not without actual experience in the advantages, as well as the difficulties, of such a plan. For two and one-half years, a group of private utilities in the Southeast and the T.V.A. have been jointly using transmission lines and exchanging power on a contractual basis. This experience is relevant in weighing the possibilities of a more comprehensive regional power pool. The impending expiration of this arrangement makes early consideration of future plans appropriate.

I hope and believe that, with the cooperation of those interested, we shall be able to work out a constructive plan that will extend to the Southeast and other great regions of our country the benefits and comforts that can be secured through proper development of our unparalleled natural resources.