75-20-B2
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New Gasoline Lines?[edit]
Transcript[edit]Those wonderful folks on Capitol Hill who brought you inflation, are ready to give you a real live energy shortage next. I'll be right back. Remember those long lines at the gas pumps back in early 1974? Well we'll have them back again if a bill which passed the House recently becomes law. It was sponsored by Representative John Dingell of Michigan. It's similar to one sponsored by Washington's Henry Jackson, which had earlier passed the Senate. It's now in conference committee to iron out differences, then it goes to the President. There's been a lot of political tugging and pulling over price deregulation of so-called "old oil." The president wants to deregulate. It would mean more expensive gasoline but would provide needed dollars to be pumped into domestic exploration and development to free us from dependence on imported oil. The Federal Energy Administration estimates that by 1985 the American petroleum industry should be investing about 60 billion dollars a year to reach this goal, but it's nowhere near that right now. In the last five years it's been estimated that the oil industry has been investing double the amount of its earnings in domestic exploration and development. It can't go on doing that for long. What did the majority in Congress do to hasten the process of energy independence? Not only did the Dingle bill maintain the five dollar and a quarter per barrel ceiling on old oil, it also carried an amendment to roll back the price of so-called new oil from its present free market level of 11 to 13 dollars down to $7.50. If this becomes law it would sharply reduce instead of expand incentives to go after more domestic oil and would cause price rollbacks at the pump. Now that would be an open invitation for a big jump in demand and those long lines it could produce a shortage that would make the last one look like a parlor game. Congressman Clarence Brown of Ohio offered an amendment to this misnamed energy conservation bill that would have stricken the reference to price controls. The House rejected it nearly two to one. He then offered an amendment to knock out a provision that would hold gasoline production at 1973-74 levels. This too was defeated, leaving the production limitation in effect thus almost guaranteeing a politically inspired gasoline shortage this winter if the bill is signed. Meanwhile the administration re-released its 100 billion Rockefeller plan on energy. It would add another bureaucracy in Washington and would tend to force energy producers to tailor their research and development programs to the whims of the bureaucrats. What no one in Washington seems to be saying is that there isn't really a choice between cheap and expensive energy. There's only going to be expensive energy. There are two silver linings in the cloud though. When gas is expensive we have a good reason to conserve it and the sooner we let the forces of the marketplace go to work the sooner we'll be free of OPEC's blackmail. Then with more abundant supplies, prices will stabilize themselves. As for that Dingle bill, Congressman Brown said, "I think every member of Congress who votes for this should have his picture on the gasoline pump so that consumers can know whom to write to to thank for the shortage." Meanwhile it's time to write to the president urging a veto. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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