Californians go crazy in struggle for petrol

Press, 10 May 1979, Page 8

Californians go crazy in struggle for petrol

International

NZPA-Reuter Los Angeles Car-crazy Californians jumped queues, brandished guns, knifed each other, or scuffled at the pumps yesterday as the minutes ticked away to the deadline for the introduction of petrol rationing.

The State with 16M vehicles among 22M people has been worst hit by an oil shortage that has led President Jimmy Carter to seek emergency petrol rationing powers from Congress. Without waiting for Mr Carter’s plan which the Senate was scheduled to vote on today, the California Governor (Mr Jerry Brown) had approved a State rationing scheme. Many motorists showed themselves prepared to use force to get their tanks filled before it took effect. The police and other officials reported ugly scenes in queues of ill-tempered motorists. A pregnant woman W'as beaten up by a man who thought she had jumped a queue. A driver in Hollywood held off an angry crowd at gunpoint as he pumped fuel into his tank after pushing in front of 50 cars.

Many f i 11 i n g-station attendants armed themselves with clubs or guns. Several

knifings were reported, and there were constant scuffles and. crashes as some motorists who tried to sneak ahead were rammed by other drivers.

Throughout California petrol cans and lockable fueltank caps were in short supply. In San Diego, hospitals reported treating about 40 persons for the effects of swallowing fuel while trying to siphon it from tanks. In Santa Ana, a family of seven were badly burned when fuel stored in their garage exploded. After a week of petrol shortages, Californians were either “coping with the crisis or going crazy,” one policeman said. On the bright side, some filling stations had rollerskating girls wearing shorts and smiles, selling coffee and doughnuts to the majority of drivers who patiently waited their turn. Under Governor Brown’s scheme, cars with number plates ending in odd num-

bers can be filled up on odddated days, and cars with even numbers on even days. Mr Carter’s plan, which has been modified three times to meet objections from the Senate Energy Committee, favours rural states where drivers travel long distances.

The committee finally approved the stand-by plan on

a 9-7 vote on Tuesday and the committee’s chairman, Senator Henry Jackson, predicted that the full Senate would also approve it.

Under the terms under which it was submitted to Congress, the bill will die unless both the Senate and House of Representatives pass it by tomorrow.

In a last effort to win support for the rationing plan, the White House said crude-oil reserves now totalled 319 M barrels, dangerously close to the 310 M barrels considered the nation’s minimum safe supply. There seemed no simple reason why the predicted world-wide oil shortage should hit California first.

One theory was that Californians had increased consumption by 9 per cent in the last year — against 4 per cent for the United States as a whole — but petroleum companies had made deliveries jiased on consumption a year ago.