Senator HASKELL. Now, we have a panel consisting of Mr. Robson, vice president of energy and materials management at Monsanto; Mr. Gould with Georgia-Pacific; and Mr. Thomas, with United States Steel Corp. Will the three people that I called, please come to the witness table.

Gentlemen, would you identify yourselves for the Reporter?

Mr. THOMAS. My name is Harry Thomas. I am general manager of power, fuel and material distribution, at the United States Steel Corp. I am speaking today for the American Iron and Steel Institute. Mr. ROBSON. I am Ernest S. Robson, Jr., of Monsanto Co., and I am speaking for the Petrochemical Energy Group.

Mr. GOULD. I am Matthew Gould, corporate director of energy and environment for the Georgia-Pacific Corp., Portland, Oreg., and I am speaking as the chairman of the air task force of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Senator HASKELL. All right.

Gentlemen, you may go ahead in whatever order you have decided on among yourselves.

Mr. ROBSON. I will lead off, Senator.

Senator HASKELL. Fine. Your complete statement will be included in the record.

STATEMENT OF ERNEST S. ROBSON, JR., VICE PRESIDENT, ENERGY AND MATERIALS MANAGEMENT, MONSANTO CO.

Mr. ROBSON. I am responsible, being a corporate vice president of Monsanto, for acquisition of our company's raw materials, feed stocks and energy supplies.

I, also, speak for the Petrochemical Energy Group, which is an ad hoc group of independent chemical companies, including names like duPont, Carbide and Dow and so on. All are directly affected by S. 977, since we are a highly energy intensive industry, and therefore, are large energy consumers.

Our companies use natural gas and petroleum products as fuels, but more importantly, natural gas and its liquids, as well as petroleum and its fractions, are our basic raw materials, feedstocks if you will, for the manufacture of basic petrochemicals.

From these so-called petrochemicals are produced 78 percent of the rubber used in this country: 60 percent of all textile fibers; all ammonia based fertilizers; all plastics and a host of other products from antifreeze to aspirin and pharmaceuticals.

I would like to comment on four conclusions that we have come to, concerning S. 977. First, and most importantly, we strongly support the objectives of S. 997. Conserving our natural gas and petroleum for essential end-uses, a preferred use of resources philosophy. Second. Federal disincentives to achieving these goals should be removed, including continued regulation of new natural gas and new oil prices.

Third, greater economic incentives are necessary than those presently contained in the bill; and, fourth, I would like to comment on certain modifications to the bill that we feel necessary to enable us to get from oil and gas to coal, in the quickest and cheapest manner, with a minimum of governmental intervention.