UTILITIES: Victory for Private Power

When President Howard Aller of American Power & Light Co. recently decided to sell one of American's subsidiaries, the Washington Water Power Co., to three Public Utility Districts, he thought the deal was all settled (TIME, Jan. 14). But he reckoned without American Power's directors. A majority of them protested the sale after stockholders opposed it before the SEC. The directors took the position that the Washington Water Power stock, which American Power must get rid of under the Public Utilities Holding Company Act, should not be sold to the P.U.D.s, but distributed to American Power's stockholders. Aller was reportedly told by American Power officials that they intended to distribute the stock, "if we have to remove you to do it."

Faced with this ultimatum, Aller gave in last week. Announced the board of directors: the sale of Washington Water Power to the P.U.D.s is off. Instead, the stock will be distributed to American Power stockholders, and Washington Water Power will remain in private hands. The reversal was a signal victory for Washington Water Power's President Kinsey Robinson, who had opposed the sale right along. And it was the first big victory in years that private power has won in the Northwest.