5.0 UTILITY LIABILITY DUE TO THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF SPS RELATED ACTIVITIES Introduction and Summary Whoever owns the SPS - the electric utilities, a private or semiprivate corporation or a government agency - this owner could be liable for all the adverse effects that could result from SPS related activities; the cost of these liabilities would presumably be added to the cost of SPS generated electrical energy via the cost of insurance. At this point in time, too little is known about the potential adverse effects to either • Identify all the possible liabilities, • Estimate the magnitude of all identified liabilities, • Reliably estimate the cost of meeting the liabilities, or • Determine whether the electric utilities would assume these liabilities. It is possible to come to reliable conclusions on only a limited number of questions; questions such as e What type and level of liability are the electric utilities likely to accept, and • What level of liability would indicate that the hazards associated with the SPS are large enough to prevent its construction? This latter question is beyond the scope of this study. An approximate answer to the first question can be obtained by examining the history of this issue vis-a-vis nuclear power plants. In the past, the electric utilities have assumed the liabilities associated with the degradation of radio and television reception along
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