the legislature does find itself working on new tax bills in a special session, the old ploy might be used of adding the gross receipts tax as a rider on some minor "must" bill. Because of repeated and effective arguments by the industry officials, the gross receipts tax idea most likely would be replaced by a corporate income tax law, possibly written as early as in a special session of the legislature called for 1970. The impact on Texas chemical and allied industries is hard to measure, say most company and TCC officials. Whether the rate of growth in revenues to the state from all sources would slow, and thus complicate revenue problems, can't be measured with useful accuracy. This growth has been good—about $600 million more will be available in the next two years than came in during the past two years, estimates the Texas Manufacturers Association. The biennium budget now is well over $5 billion. Discriminatory taxes, however, could cost the state its competitive position and reduce the expected gains from existing tax laws.
MAGNESIUM:
Dow Says Where At Last Dow Chemical has finally disclosed the site it has chosen for its primary magnesium plant in the Far West. It will go in at Dallesport, Wash., on the Columbia River some 70 miles upstream from Portland. Scheduled for startup in the last half of 1971, incremental expansions will bring the plant to its design output level of 48,000 tons annually in 1976. Coproduct chlorine will amount to 100,000 tons per year. The facility, to cost "in excess of $20 million," will use a Dow-developed electrolytic cell. Beyond commenting that this will result in "very favorable economics," a Dow spokesman won't elaborate on the process. Magnesium chloride feedstock will come from a plant near Ogden, Utah, where Dow will upgrade material supplied by Great Salt Lake Minerals and Chemicals Corp. (C&EN, Dec. 16, 1968, page 17). Substantial quantities of the primary metal from the Dallesport operation will go to customers west of the Rockies, Dow says. Western U.S. demand for magnesium is burgeoning. Aluminum-magnesium alloys, for example, are used in a variety of components that go into airplanes because of the significant weight savings gained by use of lighter magnesium and the superior toughness and structural strength of these alloys. Moreover, Japan, strictly speaking,
is west of the Rockies, too. Auto makers there are taking a growing interest in magnesium just as their counterparts in Detroit and elsewhere are doing. A plant in Washington, and good port facilities going in at the site, should put Dow in a strong position to corner a fair slice of the Orient magnesium demand. Dow says that all of coproduct chlorine from the Dallesport plant will go to customers in the West. These could include pulp and paper makers, which use large amounts of chlorine for bleaching. Dow could captively use chlorine for making chlorinated hydrocarbons and agricultural chemicals.
ENVIRONMENT:
An Eye on the Council President Nixon may well have headed off a minor skirmish with Congress over the creation of a Cabinet-level council on the environment. As finally established 11 days ago by executive order of the President, the Environmental Quality Council will have its own outside "Citizens' Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality" to see to it that the interagency group doesn't fall into the doldrums Administration critics say often befalls such groups. The Environmental Quality Council has a structure that in some respects parallels that of the National Security Council and the Urban Affairs Council, the President says. Members of the council are the Secretaries of Agriculture; Commerce; Health, Education, and Welfare; Housing and Urban Development; Interior; and Transportation as well as the Vice President.
The President heads the new council. Presidential science adviser Lee A. DuBridge is executive secretary. Mr. Nixon said the council will examine the "full range of variables that affect environmental quality. I expect the group to review existing policies and programs and to suggest ways of improving them. Its members must project the impact of new technologies and encourage scientific developments which will help us protect our resources." Senators Henry M. Jackson (D.Wash.) and Gaylord Nelson (D.Wis.) expressed doubts at Senate Interior Committee hearings in April about an interagency approach to environmental problems (C&EN, April 28, page 16). Sen. Jackson said that members of such groups don't have the time to deal with broad government functions. What's more, Sen. Nelson added, not one interagency committee has ever been successful in dealing with "hard problems" such as those posed by the environment. Sen. Jackson's bill (S. 1075) proposed an independent advisory group, a national policy on the environment, and would authorize the Interior Secretary to conduct studies and research relating to the nation's ecological systems and natural resources. Sen. Jackson has since amended this bill to set out national goals for an environmental policy. First meeting of the Environmental Quality Council is slated for midJune. Dr. DuBridge says that among the first items on the council's agenda will be to determine what actions should be taken "about the control and use of D D T and the development of substitute pesticides." He expects action soon on disposal of solid wastes and garbage. A third area in which he expects action is on auto and industrial pollution.
DEFENSE RESEARCH:
MIT Seeks a Balance
Science adviser DuBridge DDT among first on agenda
A special committee has reviewed defense-oriented research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and finds that a better balanced research program—not the elimination of all defense work or the spin-off of two special labs—is a desirable goal. As a result of the study, MIT president Howard W. Johnson says the school will institute new programs for classified research and will seek projects directed toward socially useful technology for the labs. The 22-man panel, which was selected to represent diverse views on the controversial subject of military research on campus, finds that MIT JUNE 9, 1969 C&EN
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