77-21-A1
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Energy
TranscriptCover up is the name of the game in Washington and right now the game is energy and how to cover up how much of it we have. I’ll be right back. The House of Representatives rammed through the President's energy plan pretty much as ordered after listening to the frightening stories the White House told of dark nights to come. They almost gave us the day and hour at which the tanks would run dry. You wanted to ask if that was Eastern Pacific time? By the time the Senate took the matter up a little more common sense was prevailing and with good reason. The doom criers in the Senate filibustered, cots were brought in for the all night sessions and finally the weary Solons came up with a compromise. It isn’t as good as it could be but at least it's a program for gradual de-regulation of the price on natural gas. Of course this now has to go to a joint conference committee to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions so more compromise is likely. But one thing was demonstrated—the value of the cumbersome, slow moving pace of the legislative process. It gives time for even the best hidden facts to come out. Just think if we had acted on the White House declaration that we’d be running out of fuel before the turn of the century—now only 22 years and a few months away. As the days went by we learned of a report by the Executive branches own Energy and Research Development Administration, which was so optimistic about future supplies the Whitehouse sat on the report to protect it’s own credibility. The ERDA staff responsible for the report was hastily reassigned to other duties and their chief wound up walking a beat in flatbush. One of the optimistic utterances of the now muzzled group was that at $2.50 a 1000 cubic ft. instead of Mr. Carter's $1.75 the nation would be awash in natural gas. With that hole in the script covered the House went forward with the Pres- idents plan. But Whoops! Dr. Vincent McKelvey, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey a career scientist with U.S.G.S. for 20 yrs. was making a speech in Boston. He mentioned a 4000 yr. supply of geologically pressured gas in the Gulf of Mexico, also a large amount of oil still to be found in the U.S. The Doctor is an expert on geology but a rank amateur on politics. The White House quickly covered with a C.I.A. report (you remember C.I.A.) that the Russians would run out of oil by 1985 and start buying it from the Arabs. Dr. McKelvey sincerely interested in helping out said “No the Rus- sians” are floating on a sea of oil.” Dr. McKelvey is no longer Director of the U.S. Geological Survey. He’s in an obscure office down the hall someplace. In 98 years the agency has only had 9 directors. They are appointed by nominated by the National Academy of Sciences and Presidents have always accepted them and not fired them.1 Dr. Joseph Barneo of Israel who was the U.N. Director of Natural Resources says present estimates of recoverable oil are only 1% of what is there. The other 99% can be recovered by the law of supply and demand. In 1942 our estimate of crude oil reserves was 600 billion barrels. By 1970 the estimate was 4 trillion Russian Scientists now place it at 12 Trillion. The law of supply and demand still works. We don't need an a new energy department we only need deregulation. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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