ACSR Stalls AP&L Decision, Asks Professors for Opinions

The Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility decided last night not to take a stand on Arkansas Power and Light's controversial power plant plans until after vacation.

In a meeting attended by about half its 15 student, faculty and alumni members, the ACSR also decided--as it hinted it would at last month's meetings--to ask Harvard faculty members to evaluate the Investor Responsibility Research Center's report on the power plant controversy.

Requested Report

The center's report was prepared at the ACSR's request after an Arkansas community group asked Harvard, the largest single stockholder in the holding company that owns AP&L, to oppose the company's plans for a coal-burning power plant on the Arkansas River.

Several Harvard faculty members, including Marc Roberts, associate professor of Economics, and Richard Wilson, professor of Physics, have expressed interest in the AP&L controversy, and ACSR Chairman Stanley S. Surrey, Smith Professor of Law, will presumably turn to them for discussion of the report.

A Second Report

ACSR members have also received a second report on the AP&L plant, prepared by Steven L. Kest '74 of Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the plant's major opponent. The ACSR took no action on that report.

The committee plans to hold another meeting shortly after vacation, in time to take a stand on the power plant before the Arkansas Public Service Commission's public hearings, now planned for March or April.