While energy conservation can ameliorate anticipated fuel shortages to a degree, here at home, certain measures should be taken to increase supplies of fossil fuel. Such measures which do not require extended lead time for results include: expanding the operation of the Naval Petroleum Reserves at removing the suspensions now imposed on the oil leases in the eliminating shortages caused by Federal price controls on suspending certain fuel requirements of air pollution control reconverting, wherever possible, existing power plants and granting interim operating licenses to new nuclear power plants. Anticipating energy shortages in the years ahead, certain measures can be insti tuted to reduce our energy demand with minimal adverse side-effects. One example of such measures would be year-round daylight saving time. Other measures, which will involve a careful balancing of energy savings vs. potential hardships, may become necessary. The President should be given the authority to require actions which would substantially reduce our national energy demand. Reduction in the commercial and industrial use of energy can be attained through the application of energy reduction targets. Use of such targets would provide an individual business flexibility in determining the most effective uses of its available energy. The business could establish the necessary measures (such as setting thermostats to reduce heating and air conditioning requirements, curtailing business hours, curtailing lights used for outdoor advertising, and inspection and maintenance of heating and air conditioning units) to meet the required energy reduction target. If energy supply shortages become extremely severe, the President should have the authority to impose such measures as fuel and energy rationing. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Senator Hansen, and thank you, Senator Fannin. May I say one thing to my colleagues, and that is that Governor Love has to leave at 11 o'clock. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Buckley. STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES L. BUCKLEY, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK Senator BUCKLEY. Mr. Chairman, I would like to introduce a statement into the record, if I may, and I would also like to say that I hope that in meeting this very real, critical shortage that we face, that we will not allow short-term measures that may be necessary to be turned into long-term regulations or authoritarian regulations over our economy which, in the long run, will only aggravate the problem by inhibiting private research, private development. [The prepared statement of Senator Buckley follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES L. BUCKLEY, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK The confluence of events is unquestionably leading toward a significant shortage of fuels for both commercial and residential use in the U.S. Even without the Arab oil cutbacks in the wake of the Mideast War, we would face the prospect of significant shortages in such fuels as home heating oil, propane, and aircraft fuels. Serious as the prospect of an energy shortage for the coming winter is, it is vitally important that we avoid taking steps to deal with this shortage that will sow the seeds of future shortages by precipitious governmental action and unwarranted controls. We must recognize the central rationale for any short-term rationing or allocation procedure; namely that existing stocks of fuels over a short period of time cannot be augmented by any change in price, consequently an equitable division existing supplies may be an appropriate response. It is vital, however, that we avoid the institutionalization of any short-term measures that are unnecessary to an orderly solution of our longer-term problems. To do so would convert a short-term shortage into a permanent one with costs to our economic and social system beyond measure. Therefore, we should seek to identify to the maximum extent feasible, the exact nature and extent of existing fuels shortages, and where such conditions are identified, the time required before the market system can bring forth new production. I will urge that any emergency procedures proposed be limited in applicability in time an scope to those findings. Equally unwise, in my judgment is the notion there is anything to be gained by a practice of exempting some activities from the procedures required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). If the Act is inadequate to deal with short term emergencies, the Act itself should be amended to explicitly provide for such exceptions in an orderly fashion. To do otherwise, simply invites a case-by-case attack on NEPA, with hordes of special interests seeking exemptions. Thus rather than having a National Environmental Policy, we will have a policy which is applied only to the politically most vulnerable sector of our society, and not be our society as a whole. Moreover, to raise the issue of exceptions to NEPA under the present circumstances of an energy shortage simply throws unnecessary "sand" into the gears of an otherwise rapid Congressional response to current conditions. Too often, the Congress has made decisions during an emergency which resulted in problems later that were worse than the emergency which they were responding to. Fortunately, the Congress, pursuant S.J. Res. 45. the National Fuels and Energy Study, is far better informed about the dimensions of the energy crisis been about other emergencies. I therefore hope that the Congress will Informaiton to best advantage in developing prudent but appropriate the current energy emergency. The CHAIRMAN. I think we will be hitting that specific point very shortly. The draft proposes that the legislation expires within 12 months, totally expires. Any further comments? Senator McClure. STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES A. MCCLURE, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF IDAHO Senator MCCLURE. Just very briefly, I am quite mindful of the time constraints that will be on us with a distinguished panel like this. But I think the very fact that we have this meeting and that it is being conducted here is a tribute to the recognition at last of the crisis that has confronted our country, and having said a word or two that is nice, I will probably say some that are not so nice before the morning is over, in asking various witnesses various questions about how we got here, as well as where we are going, and I am sure you will, too, Mr. Chairman. It is very difficult to express any word of criticism of any person because there is enough criticism of our past policies to share among all of us. Yet, I am reminded that there are a number of people who have for the last several months, and indeed, the last 2 or 3 years, been warning us that we would get to this point. I remember that after months and months of frustration, the chairman of the House Interior Committee, the Honorable Wayne Aspinall from Colorado, called a meeting on the energy crisis, and that meeting was held in May of last year. I remember that at that meeting it was almost impossible to get any attention from either the administration or the press. I remember at one point when Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton was testifying, I said, "Why do you refuse to admit this is a crisis?" He said, it is not, it is a temporary insufficiency of supply. At that time I said, it is a crisis, and I looked over at the press table, and the press was shaking their head, no, it is not a crisis. So if there was a failure on the part of the people of this country to understand what we were dealing with, the administration can share the blame and the press can share the blame for not giving that kind of information to the people upon which they must make their judgments. I remember that less than a month ago, the administration and others, for whatever reasons, were saying the shortfall of supply, because of Arab cutoff, could not amount to more than 5 percent. Five percent of our oil consumption in this country came from the Arab countries. At the time those statements were made, those figures were false or at least inaccurate. I remember that some of the actions that we were seeking to take called for temporary suspension of secondary sulfur standards, an action that was recommended in the CEQ report of last year, an action that was recommended by EPA. Yet the reports at least of the first two speeches made by Mr. Train as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency came out saving, well, to the States, you can ask for variances, but vou better be darn sure that vou can justify them because we are not going to give them easily, which was a way, I thought, of at least conveying to the Governors of the States, the monkey is on your back if you will really try to do anything. I think there are a number of reasons why we have gotten to the point where we are today, recognizing at last that we have a crisis, that it is not just a small aberration that is temporary, that will go away without any difficulty. I hope that at last, because of these meetings this morning and the glare of publicity that has been focused on it by a very forthright statement by the President of the United States last night, we will begin to take measures that the chairman of this committee and myself and several others have been calling for for some weeks and some months. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Senator Domenici. STATEMENT OF HON. PETE V. DOMENICI, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO Senator DOMENICI. I just want to compliment you and the committee. My presence here is evidence that various committees of the U.S. Senate want to cooperate. I am here as a member of the Public Works Committee rather than Interior. I think this indicates that we are now ready to forget about the kind of jurisdictional pettiness that might have held things back, and we are ready to get on with acquiring the facts and preparing legislation to get it to the floor as quickly as possible. I thank the chairman for giving me an opportunity to speak. The CHAIRMAN. May I just say that I could make a long speech about what was not done in the past. My views in this area are well known. I am not going to do that. There will be plenty of opportunity in the future. My I say the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is going into the whole area of how this all came about, a preliminary report has been issued, and we will invite members of this committee to participate in a hearing on that subject I would hope that we will now zero in, and I have assured the President yesterday, and I made this statement publicly and I told Governor Love, that we are going to proceed here on a bipartisan basis. I think I say to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, the best politics right now are no politics. There is plenty of time for that later. I want to move on this bill, and I know we all join in that effort, both Republicans and Democrats, because we are going to get into the investigative end of it on all this and how it came about, to see if we really can find the answer. We have heading the panel this morning Governor Love who is Director of the Energy Policy Office; Mr. John Busterud, who is the Acting Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality; Secretary Claude S. Brinegar, Department of Transportation; and Stephen A. Wakefield, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Energy and Minerals. Of course, Russell Train who is the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; Mr. Hugh Witt, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Installations and Logistics; and Mr. Julius Katz, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Resources and Food Policy, Department of State. May I say we are in public session. The Secretary of State is in the Middle East. There are some sensitive areas, and I have given to my colleagues some notes on things that we do not want to get into in this public arena that involve matters of diplomacy and matters of defense. So I would admonish the witnesses at the table to be aware if some question is in that direction, to defer it for a private, executive session. We have gone into most of that in executive session earlier. So I hope my colleagues will keep that in mind. Before I defer to Senator Bartlett, let me say that you all have statements. I hope that you can put the statements in the record and kind of summarize or just hit the high points in the interest of time and effort to conclude the Government witnesses this morning. Senator Bartlett. STATEMENT OF HON. DEWEY F. BARTLETT, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA Senator BARTLETT. Mr. Chairman, I thank you for recognizing me. I apologize for being late, but I did get in just at the time you were talking about bipartisan support, and I certainly endorse that idea. I think it is most important that we not only deal with the emergency factors as considered by the President last night of a short-term range, but also the short-term needs for facing up to the supply. The problem, of course, is shortages of supply and I trust that we will have bipartisan support in increasing the supply of gas and the supply of oil in the United States. I think we can take advantage of the intrastate shipment and price structure of natural gas to see how we have had a system that has worked, that has provided in many of the States a good supply of gas at a reasonable price that is encouraging further drilling and exploration and I think that the interstate system could very well take advantage of looking at how this is worked, because the interstate shipment of gas has been a dismal failure. So I certainly endorse the suggestion of the chairman for a bipartisan effort, and I certainly hope that this will exist in strong efforts to immediately, for the short term, take steps toward increasing the supply. The American people deserve more than just allocation of shortages and being called upon to make sacrifices in use of energy. I think this is important, it is essential, it is necessary, but they also deserve a program that will be designed to provide quickly an increase in our domestic supplies and self-sufficiency for emergency purposes, so that we can operate, knowing very well that we can operate very well without imports of oil and imports of liquefied natural gas. Mr. Chairman, I certainly support the bipartisan effort on this basis. The CHAIRMAN. I hope it will be fully understood that we are trying to move here today. The President wants a bill right away, Senator Bartlett. We can't go into the issue of deregulation of natural gas and all these other things if we are going to carry out what the President asked. I moved, as you know, on this on October 18 and we are still on it. I just want to be forthright in saying that we just can't get into a lot of other issues in this bill. We will have it in other bills. We have been on my $20 billion research and development bill since January. I hope that on this one we can really move, and that is what I am here for. We |