Show president tellI tell I e energy costs Increase The cos cost of energy has increased in in- creased dra dramatically because of oC two main reasons B L Z Kastler Mounta Fuel Supply Company told t l' ti annual meeting of the Utah Farm Bure Bureau Federation at the Salt Lake Hilton Wednesday afternoon of last week He said th first on is' is that hat world demand for Cor oil and gas in increasing while the supply is decreasing g. g T ol p is the value of the money used to pay for energy is becoming less and less each day day- FISCAL irresponsibility on on the part of C our federal government govern ment was a major factor in inflating prices long before beCore there wa was any energy crisis and m may y well have precipitated the he action of oC OPEC countries in drastically increasing oil prices in an endeavor to escape the consequences of oC American inflation which was basically brought about by erosion in value of oC our money Ka Kastler said He lie pointed out that America will celebrate its bicentennial by being billion in debt Its easy to blame a massive nebulous entity like the federal government for Cor our problems Kastler said But we ve should never fool Cool ourselves to the point that the government becomes the scapegoat unnecessarily un un- necessarily I 1 sincerely believe and feel Ceel many of you concur that federal governmental policies pave have ave been the major factor contributing to our current perilous national ec economic situation IN the United States it is still you and 1 I who are the government and any foolish Coolish governmental excesses have occurred only because we have allowed them to Whether we like it or not we must share shire the blame along with our peers for actions that have been mirrored in the actions of Congress Mr Kastler noted that there are many critics of the American oil industry both inside and outside government lie He pointed out that many ny would nationalize the oil industry Buthe Buthe But nut he called attention to the fact ant aM while gasoline is selling for 50 cents to 60 cents per gallon inthe In Inthe Inthe the United States in Britain and France where government operations supply gasoline it has been between and for many years IF ANYTHING should teach us the undesirability of oC governmental control it should be our national experience with natural gas Kastler said In 1954 the federal governs government govern govern- s ment began regulating the price of oC natural gas By holding the price down far below the price of pC competing but unregulated fuels a huge demand was created for here was a premium fuel at bargain basement prices But ut regulated low prices ultimately returned so little profit that exploration activities tapered off and supplies dwindled until the the nation as a whole now has only about bout nine years supply at this years year's rate of oC use NOW NW INSTEAD of decontrolling the price to encourage encourage encourage en en- courage greater investment and renewed exploration activity activity ac ac- li ity the federal government over the past two years has be been n treating the symptom instead of the disease by granting increases making i th mr whole host of oC new problems While regulation of oC natural gas has created far Car greater shortages elsewhere it has still had an impact in our our service area Fortunately because Mountain Fuel always concentrated concentrated concentrated con con- hard on exploration ev even n in tough times Umes we are much better off here in Utah than the nation as a whole Our reserves are about 15 years at this years year's rate of use and if iC we dropped some of our larger industrial users who can and do sometimes burn the more expensive expensive expensive ex ex- ex- ex pensive coal our reserves are closer to 30 years IN CONCLUSION Mr Kastler Kasper commented on a pending law suit which seeks to have Mountain Fuel return some million in recent rate increases granted by the Utah Public Service Commission He noted that even th though ugh the plaintiffs attempted to drop Mountain Fuel from Crom the suit on election day the company has succeeded in remaining in the C d Gill fill conclusion lie He said the company welcomes inquiries from anyone and is willing to extend the effort and time to respond to toor toor toor or meet with concerned citizens who are seeking answers to their questions Anyone who is sufficiently interested to spend the time to glean out the facts will discover how the efficiencies we proudly note in our company have provided our customers with among the best reserves and the lowest prices in the United States Kastler said |