U.S. PREDICAMENT

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33382, 14 November 1973, Page 17

U.S. PREDICAMENT

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copy right) WASHINGTON, November 13. The rationing of petrol, possibly at treble the present price, today seems a New Year certainty for the United States. The question is no longer “if,” but “when.”

A Senate committee has approved legislation making petrol and other fuel rationing mandatory within two weeks of Congressional approval. The White House adviser on energy, Mr John Love, told oil industry executives yesterday that rationing was a probability by the beginning of next year. He also told the meeting of 2500 oil men in Houston, Texas, that the price could go up to SUSI.2O (N.Z.BOc) a gallon in the near future; the price at present is between US4Oc and SUSSOc (NZ27c and NZ34c). Mr Love’s grim warning, coupled with a prediction of a continuing fuel shortage for the next two or three years, followed that of the Secretary of the Interior (Mr Rogers Morton) during the week-end that petrol rationing could last a couple of years. The Senate Interior Committee, acting swiftly to help the Nixon Administration to deal with the energy crisis, last night approved legislation giving the President most of the authority he asked for last week in a special message to the country.

The bill, written largely by the committee’s chairman, Senator Henry Jackson (Democrat, Washington), provides for the rationing of scarce fuels by priority. It would also allow the

President to restrict fuel for such non-essential uses as outdoor advertising and recreational activity; limit business hours for commercial establishments, public services and schools; reduce highway speed limits while encouraging public transport by means of fare subsidies; adjust airline and railway time-tables; and require electric power stations to change to coal if possible. Rationing would cover home heating fuels as well as petrol for cars. Senator Jackson said that he expected the bill to reach the Senate floor on Wednesday, after the Upper Chamber has voted on the Alaska pipeline legislation approved by the House of Representatives yesterday. The pipeline measure allows the Department of the Interior to grant a right-of-way permit for the 800-mile pipeline to carry oil from the frozen North Slope of Alaska to the warm-water port of Valdez, on the southern coast.' Although the Administration has been anxious for passage of the bill, in face of opposition from conservationists trying to protect Alaska’s natural wildlife, two unrelated amendments tacked on to the legislation raised the possibility of a Presidential veto. The amendments extend the authority of the Federal Trade Commission, a Government regulatory agency, and the Budget Director (Mr Roy Ash) has said that he may recommend a veto because of this provision. However, Mr Nixon will be under considerable Congressional and industrial pressure to sign the measure, even though it may be some years before the pipeline is completed and oil begins to flow from Alaska’s rich North Slope reserves.