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Her view that the environmentalists tend to exaggerate the dangers is basically supported by George MacGinitie, the longtime (1932-57) director of Cal Tech's marine laboratories, who lives on the sound. But her statements flabbergast a number of her former colleagues at the University of Washington. A group of 79 scientists and graduate students have declared that a spill "would have serious consequences in Puget Sound." Robert Harman, professor of geology and geography, charges: "Her statements are either misguided, misinformed, naive or whatever. The bays and estuaries of Puget Sound have a tendency to keep oil trapped permanently. Every marine biologist we know agrees that we should not allow high oil-tanker traffic in those waters."
A coalition of environmentalists and state officials backs an alternate plan that would take the supertankers to Port Angeles, which is on the strait leading into Puget Sound in easily navigable waters. The oil would then be carried by pipeline around the southern shore of the sound —some going on up to Cherry Point and the rest flowing to the Midwest. Ideally, the environmentalists would also like to stop all tanker traffic on Puget Sound. Senator Magnuson does not go that far, but he has succeeded in getting a measure passed in Congress and signed by President Carter that in effect prevents supertankers from going to Cherry Point. For the time being, at least, Ray has no plans to try to thwart Magnuson's ploy, but the issue of just how oil will be transported through Washington State is far from settled.
Electricity is another key issue for Ray and the state —ironically so, since Washington once had far more power than it could use and still has the cheapest household rates in the country (about one-quarter the cost in New York State). In the '30s the Federal Government began damming the lordly 1,210-mile Columbia River; the Grand Coulee, the Bonneville and 24 other dams in the system are the heart of a Northwest network that generates 43% of all the hydroelectric power in the nation, yet even that is not enough. Demand in the region is expected to double in 20 years. Problem: building more dams on the Columbia has been stopped for environmental reasons.
The former AEC chairman believes the atom is the answer. Ray argues that strict safety standards are being incorporated into the state's six nuclear reactors now planned or under construction —including two at Hanford, site of the nation's first center to produce plutonium. Says she: "We are going to have atomic power as fossil fuels dwindle, so we may as well get used to it."