Carter calls for help to fight oilmen

Press, 23 August 1979, Page 6

Carter calls for help to fight oilmen

NZPA-Reuter Davenport, lowa President Jimmy Carter yesterday urged Americans to help him break the enormous power of the oil industry and overcome its opposition to a windfall-pro-fits tax on domestically-pro-duced oil. The President appealed for support for his energy programme while answering questions on a radio talk show held during a stop on his cruise down the Mississippi River in the paddleboat Delta Queen. He also expressed the belief that by the end of the year his economic policies, including voluntary wage

and price guidelines, would deduce inflation from its annual rate of 14 per cent. The problems put to Mr Carter dealt mainly with energy, inflation, and what some questioners said was a lack of confidence among Americans in their future. The President sought to ease these concerns, but said “people must be determined, they must be unselfish” if they were to deal with the energy crisis and other problems in everyday life. In his latest criticism of the oil companies, Mr Carter said he was now trying to build up a consumers’ lobby to defeat their attempts to kill the proposed windfallprofits tax.