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
15
THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK
should retain its instrumentation and Lincoln Laboratories. It asks, and president Johnson has agreed, that MIT "energetically explore" new proj ects that would bring about a better balance between civilian and military projects. The MIT recommendations ham mered out by the committee of alumni, students, professors, and staff was ini tially well received by student and faculty groups that had made it known they favored cancellation of all weap ons research. The MIT solution thus attempts to steer a course between severing ties with its research insti tutes and violent protest. The annual budget in fiscal 1968 for both labs was about $120 million; the total MIT budget was $214 mil lion. Ties between the labs and MIT are not close. The labs are nonprofit, have independent staffs, but do share some business functions such as pur chasing, payroll, and accounting with the school and pay for a proportionate share of overhead costs. The panel says that the country's scientific and technological base rests in large part in the universities and that this base should be available to support advances in defense-related fields. While it is obvious that the labs cannot precipitously modify their mix, the report calls for a "real sense of urgency in the redeployment of energies/' It also asks for the appointment of a standing committee for the laborato ries, that the educational interaction between the laboratories and the cam pus be expanded, and that classifica tions and clearance barriers be re duced. About 3700 people work in the two laboratories, although the number of chemists is not large. Most profes sionals are electrical and mechanical engineers and physicists. Dr. John Ross, head of M l T s chemistry de partment, says that none of his fac ulty and no graduate chemistry stu dents are employed at the labs. Many of the nation's colleges are changing their policies regarding clas sified research. Cornell hoped to sell its aeronautical labs but has halted proceedings at the request of the state of New York for the time at least. Stanford cut its ties with Stanford Re search Institute (C&EN, May 19, page 13). George Washington University and its Human Resources Research Office, which performs research in the behavioral sciences, have parted com pany. American University, following the recommendation of an eight-man special committee, will sever ties with its Center for Research in Social Sys tems. 16
C & E N J U N E 9, 1969
NUCLEAR POWER:
Few New Commitments Suddenly nuclear power has lost its attractiveness to the electric utility industry. Licensing delays, rising costs, slippage in equipment delivery schedules, and increasing public con cern over aesthetics and safety have combined to cause a plummeting of orders by electric utilities for new nu clear plants. Consolidated Edison's announcement last week of its inten tion to build a 1115-Mw(e). nuclear unit at Verplank, N.Y., is only the second such commitment this year. Last year 17 new units were ordered; the year before, 3 1 . The effect on chemically related in dustries that serve the nuclear power industry is expected to be slight, how ever. Nuclear Fuel Services, a divi sion of Getty Oil, is set, in fact, to an nounce expansion of its fuel reproc essing plant in West Valley, N.Y., to serve power stations starting up in the Northeast. Others—ore processors and fuel manufacturers—are tooling up to serve those plants already on order or under construction. There will be activity enough through 1978. "The eventual impact of the slow down will certainly affect expansion of our nuclear operations," comments Dr. Paul A. McKim, vice president for commercial development at AtlanticRichfield Chemical Co. "However, when we went into the nuclear re processing business we anticipated de lays and worked them into the time table to see whether or not we did in fact make our scheduling properly based on this slowdown." There's no putting the finger on any one major reason for the slowdown even though Atomic Energy Commis sion chairman Glenn T. Seaborg was
able to predict more than a year ago a downturn in the cycle. Reasons for the slowdown, however, seem to in volve more than the natural turn of the market cycles. The power indus try at this point isn't seeing nuclear power as much of a bargain. AEC estimates of 180,000 M w ( e ) . of re actor-generated electricity are being altered. Utilities authority Philip Sporn, retired president of American Electric Power Co., says the total will be closer to 115,000 M w ( e ) . A cause of the slowdown that has captured most of the attention has been equipment delays, mainly pres sure vessels, on order from Babcock and Wilcox. B&W said several days ago that some delivery dates have been pushed back two years and that it has asked Rotterdam Drydock in the Netherlands to take over some of the work. But makers of turbo gen erators, valves, and pumps are also reporting delays. Although it is true that equipment makers did extend themselves beyond capacity, it is equally significant that there have been unexpected stretch outs in the registration process, fur ther extended by checks and double checks on design and construction by AEC. Regulations have perturbed the utilities as much as equipment delays, according to William S. Lee, vice president for engineering at Duke Power Co. of Charlotte, N.C. Furthermore, power people simply don't see the nuclear route as all that economical at this stage in its devel opment. Construction slippage is ex pensive in itself. But more burden some has been the rise in labor and equipment costs. R. A. Bowman, vice president and director for Bechtel Corp., says that in the past four years costs of building nuclear plants have
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