Mr. BROOKE. Yes, sir.

Senator MAGNUSON. The journalism class of 1947. He served in the Army for a period of time and was commissioned as second lieutenant and communication officer course at Yale in 1943, and served in the European theater and on the staff of the 9th Fighter Command, and mostly in communication work.

Mr. BROOKE. I was an Air Force communications officer, detailed to work with the Signal Corps.

Senator MAGNUSON. You have been a member of the Federal Power Commission since October 16. That was an unexpired term. You succeeded whom?

Mr. BROOKE. Commissioner Charles Ross of Vermont.

Senator MAGNUSON. And then from 1958 to 1968, for approximately 10 years, as the committee well knows, you were a member of the staff of the former distinguished member of this committee, Senator Morton of Kentucky, and you have been employed with various newspapers during the time prior to that time.

Now, because the law requires it, I have to ask you to answer the question, what is your political affiliation?

Mr. BROOKE. I am a registered Republican in the State of Maryland, Mr. Chairman.

Senator MAGNUSON. As customary, we have your financial statement. We will place that in the files of the committee and it is open for anyone to look at it, committee members or members of the press or the public.

Now, you have been down on the Commission for approximately how long?

Mr. BROOKE. Nine and half months, since October 16, 1968. Senator MAGNUSON. You have been down there about 9 months? Mr. BROOKE. Yes, sir.

Senator MAGNUSON. And what has been the nature of your specific work, other than your general work as Commissioner? Have you sort of specialized in any one phase of the duties of the Commission? Mr. BROOKE. No, sir.

Senator MAGNUSON. Some commissioners do. Some of them become a little more expert in power matters and others in gas matters and that is natural on commissions.

Mr. BROOKE. That is correct. No, sir; I have made no attempt to date to specialize in any particular matter or area of work of the Com

mission.

There are those of my colleagues, who have been there longer than I, who have staked out a claim, if that is a proper term, to certain

areas.

For instance, my Republican colleague from Illinois, Mr. Bagge, has taken considerable leadership in the area of liquified natural gas as to its future posture in the regulatory field.

I have concerned myself at the Commission with learning more thoroughly the scope of the regulatory functions of the Commission in the regulatory areas of the gas and utility industry.

As I commented to this committee last year in September at my hearing, I was generally familiar with the scope of the operation and work of the Federal Power Commission but having been at the Federal Power Commission only a short time I found out that I was rather weak in subjects which have a vital bearing on our work, and I

refer specifically to the areas of finance, accounting, and economics. There has been a constant learning process at the Commission.

So, in specific answer to your question, have I specialized, no, sir; I have not.

Senator MAGNUSON. Well, I probably should not have used the word specialized, but some Commissioners find themselves a little more involved, because like Members of Congress they get on special committees or different committees in which they feel they are more adapted to knowing the subject.

Mr. BROOKE. Yes, sir. I see your point.

Senator MAGNUSON. The Power Commission has a broad jurisdiction and very important one but it does deal with many facets of the energy producing community of the United States, including electric power, electric energy, and gas.

Have you had occasion to do any checking-because you were here and Senator Morton was very active in the gas pipeline safety bill, how it is operating?

Mr. BROOKE. The administration of the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act has been delegated to the Department of Transportation, Mr. Chairman.

Senator MAGNUSON. I know that, but they were to consult with the Power Commission and there was to be a liaison.

Mr. BROOKE. That is correct. One specific instance where the liaison worked well was back in the early part of this year when the new pipeline constructed across the northern peninsula of Michigan suffered a couple of explosions, a rupture of pipe for a considerable distance. Mr. Jennings, who heads up the Pipeline Safety Division of DOT, consulted with the Commission, and it is my recollection that we sent at least one and maybe two staff members to do an onscene investigation.

Certainly we do and have established liaison with the Pipeline Safety Division of DOT.

Senator MAGNUSON. Now, have you participated in any discussions down there informally or formally in relation to not only the legislation that has been up in Congress but the practical day-to-day situation of electric reliability?

Mr. BROOKE. Yes, sir. I have participated in extensive discussions at the Commission with respect to electric power reliability.

The current legislation which is before the Congress-if it has been introduced in the Senate yet or not I do not know-I know it has been introduced on the House side, and I think hearings have been held. I think they were held yesterday on the draft which was submitted by Chairman White and Commissioner O'Connor.

Senator MAGNUSON. You will recall we had some hearings last year on it in the field and the problem of brownouts and blackouts seems to be becoming a little more serious in the country due to-well, some are due to weather conditions-and the inability on the part of the producers of electric energy-probably through no fault of their own-whether it be public or private to really keep up with the tremendous demand for electrical energy.

Mr. BROOKE. Mr. Chairman, two of the problems that I see two of the overriding problems of the Federal Power Commission todayare concerned with the supply aspects of both natural gas and electric power as far as the consumer is concerned. As far as the electric power

industry is concerned, I am rather confident in my own mind they are doing everything possible within the means at their disposal to meet the challenge of our rapidly growing energy requirements in this country, and I am speaking both of the private and public sectors. Senator MAGNUSON. We know for sure that it doubles every 10 years. The demand for power doubles every 10 years.

Mr. BROOKE. Yes, sir; that is right.

Senator MAGNUSON. And it may accelerate even faster in the next 10 years. It may double in 7 of 8 years and the power people or the producers of electricity, both public and private, they keep close tab on these figures and they know this and sometimes they are unable, even though they may want to, to keep up with it.

Mr. BROOKE. We had a meeting last week with the executive advisory committee, which is the industry group established to update the national power survey. There was one interesting observation made during our discussion last week which was very, very interesting to me and somewhat surprising.

You estimate what your requirements are going to be within rough parameters at a given point in the future. You schedule your construction. You schedule your acquisition of equipment and everything to come out at a target date. You have a schedule of such and such a date when this will be accomplished. So you have these touch points along your scheduled program in which you can say, yes, I am ahead of schedule or on schedule or behind schedule.

There are many factors which affect the schedule or the time that a unit will be on-line. Some of these are internal factors over which a company has control. There are external factors over which it has no control. But the amazing part of it is, one utilities executive said, "No, gentlemen, you can be on schedule. Everything can come along just fine. You can meet your production schedule. Your generating equipment is delivered on time. You put up a reviewing stand and you put the bunting on it and you are going to have a great big dedication. You are going to have visitors there because this is a whopping big thing, and you push the button and the blankety-blank thing will not work."

So again, up until they pushed the button they were on schedule and then all the sudden the unit they hoped to have on the line would not be available. It is a very great problem and I am convinced that the industry is certainly dedicated to meeting its responsibilities to the American consumer.

Senator MAGNUSON. Well, would you say that from your experience down there, that the whole Commission, including yourself, are pretty aware of this pending problem?

Mr. BROOKE. Yes; sir, definitely; most definitely.

Senator MAGNUSON. Even though they have plenty of work on their day-to-day caseload?

Mr. BROOKE. Yes, sir.

Senator MAGNUSON. What did you find out about the gas caseload after you got down there? Are you falling behind?

Mr. BROOKE. It is tremendous.

Senator MAGNUSON. I know it is tremendous. What we want to know is how much regulatory lag exists down there?

Mr. BROOKE. In some, quite a bit of regulatory lag. Some cases go through expeditiously. The regulatory lag has concerned me down

there. Our society will not tolerate undue regulatory lags. Our procedures are set up with built-in delays because there is due process which we have to observe.

Outside of that, we try to expedite our consideration of these matters. I will confess that there are delays, unfortunately. In some respects we have no excuse for some delays, but I think in most instances we try to kick them out as rapidly as possible.

Senator MAGNUSON. Every year we give you a little more money for a few more people and usually the justification is they will then be able to catch up, particularly with the gas cases.

Mr. BROOKE. Yes, sir. Now, for the last several months we have been suddenly flooded with applications, a greatly increased number of applications, for rate increases in pricing natural gas.

Senator MAGNUSON. And you say you found the electric power study is moving along as well as could be expected? Mr. BROOKE. The national power survey?

Senator MAGNUSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. BROOKE. Yes, sir. I think there remains either one or possibly two regional reports yet to be submitted to the Commission. As the chairman knows, as these reports are submitted and accepted by the executive advisory committee and the Commission, they are published immediately and put in the public realm.

Senator MAGNUSON. We want to get that as soon as possible because when we appropriated the extra money for the survey, which has been going on for some time, we expected it to be expedited because here again is a problem of the energy demands of the people getting to a point where we are going to have some trouble if we do not have good long-range planning in this matter.

Mr. BROOKE. The chairman is precisely correct.

Senator MAGNUSON. And the power companies might have to come to Congress one of these days and ask us for some help so they can do what they would like to do, keep up with the demand.

Mr. BROOKE. I think that is wholly within the realm of possibility, Mr. Chairman.

Senator MAGNUSON. Senator Cotton.

Senator COTTON. I think Senator Mathias is here.

Senator MAGNUSON. Senator Mathias, we will be glad to have you make a statement here.

STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES MCC. MATHIAS, JR., U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MARYLAND

Senator MATHIAS. Mr. Chairman, I am sorry that I was not here when you called Mr. Brooke to the stand. Perhaps, Mr. Chairman, it is a happy circumstance because, as I was fully expecting, I was glad to observe as I walked into the room that he stands on his own feet without any help at all and gets along just fine. But I did want to say just one or two introductory words, I think, for several reasons. He is a Marylander, a distinguished Marylander, and second, because of his association with our colleague, Thruston Morton, in his many years of association with the work of the Senate on Senator Morton's staff.

You have his biography. You are as well aware as I of his accomplishments. The fact that he does have a broad knowledge of this country, his experience in the armed services, his educational ex

perience, his boyhood in Kentucky-we in Maryland forgive him for that have given him I think an insight into conditions all over the country which will be useful in discharging his duties on the Com

mission.

More than that, of course, he is a man who has enjoyed the confidence of President Johnson and President Nixon and I think this speaks for itself, Mr. Chairman.

I do commend him to your favorable consideration and I would not interrupt the proceedings any further.

Senator MAGNUSON. Well, we appreciate your coming here and expressing your opinion of the nominee.

Of course, as you pointed out, we on the committee are quite familiar with Mr. Brooke due to this past service with Senator Morton who was a very distinguished member of this committee.

Any questions of the Senator from Maryland?

Thank you so much.

Senator MATHIAS. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.

Senator COTTON. Mr. Chairman, subject to your approval I would like to make a suggestion. Unquestionably, we shall have occasion to discuss with the nominee material which appeared in an article in yesterday's Washington Daily News. It, also, is my understanding that another member of the Commission is here and desires to be heard. He probably wants to go back to his work and we want to save the committee's time.

I wonder if we could not hear him, just his statement, and then go on to question the nominee?

Senator MAGNUSON. Well, if that is agreeable to the committee, I would be glad to do that. Is there any objection to that?

Mr. BROOKE. Mr. Chairman, may I make a further suggestion: that the article 3 be inserted in the record to provide a point of departure for any discussion that might be occasioned by it?

Senator MAGNUSON. We will do that.

Senator MAGNUSON. All right, Mr. Carver, we will be glad to hear from you.

For the record, John Carver, who is a member of the Commission, wanted to come up and testify on behalf of his fellow Commissioner, Mr. Brooke, and I said that I am sure the committee would be very pleased to hear from you about any matters you have pertaining to the nominee.

STATEMENT OF JOHN A. CARVER, JR., MEMBER, FEDERAL POWER
COMMISSION

Mr. CARVER.Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
As you have stated, I volunteered my statement on this.

Senator MAGNUSON. As a matter of fact, there is nothing particularly unusual about this. Where a person who is nominated for any commission and two or three of his fellow commissioners weren't here and open for questions.

As a matter of fact, the whole commission shows up to see their colleague appear before the committee on a nomination, particularly a renomination, where they already know him.

Mr. CARVER. That may have been the situation today except this is the Commission meeting date and it is the last day under the chair

a The article referred to is on p. 110.