Super-Power

With money available at low rates and an attitude of live and let live prevalent in public opinion,.utility companies of the hydro-electric variety have been enjoying a considerable boom. There has been in consequence unusual interest shown in plans by various engineers and engineering associations for the establishment of "superpower" systems over wide areas of the country. A sub-committee of the Northeastern Super-power Committee, headed by Secretary Hoover, has completed a report upon possibilties of this sort for the New England and Middle Atlantic States.

The Committee represents both Federal and State officials, and was intended to promote cooeperation between local and national authorities in merging and consolidating hydro-electric problems and equipment. The subcommittee's report is mainly concerned with the production of electric power from coal, since in the northeastern section under consideration water power can supply only 25% of the power required. The recommendations of the report include the linking up of power systems now local only, and the construction of central facilities for creating and storing surplus power. Such a system would, the sub-committee states, result in the saving of more than 50 million tons of coal annually, as well as larger power reserves and less danger of interrupted service. Such a unified system, too, would facilitate the conversion of railroads to electric power from steam, and make power available even on the farms.