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Show Enterprise Review , v.dKfsfi '"' - "V4, I ' . - s , ' Page - . The Recent 2 It has .been months since have required anyone has asked me about hiding gasoline supplies in abandoned service stations. The Flying Dutchman is apparently no longer aimlessly cruising the open seas with loaded oil tankers waiting for price increases, and headlines about deliberately capped oil wells have given way to headlines about events having a more substantial foundation. Does this mean the crisis is over, or that the combatants have tired of the conflict? Definitely not. We are a long way from solving our energy prolems, and the battle line is clearly drawn between the oil industry and its antagonists. The current campaign being waged in the halls of Congress centers on two issues; to what extent should the oil industry be regulated, and should the larger oil companies be required to divest themselves of all their holdings except those in one specific segment of the industry. Shock waves reverberated through the industry when 45 senators voted in favor of a floor amendment which would - Fai. tossiee. : if regulation is removed is the major stumbling block. In our system it has always been that the consumer is best served by an abundant supply. Supply guarantees price comp etition and choice of lifestyle. Supply shortage causes hardship and dislocation. It is not in our national interest to continue or expand regulations that have already brought us to the doorstep of disaster. If there are those who need special help in Petroleum Association of America, has gone as far as to say that divestiture is a deliberate step toward nationalization. Some C ongressmen want to shatter the industry so the Federal Government will have to take over and pick up the pieces. Regulation is a subject we especially increasing the probability of local or regional have had more experience inconveniences. with, and its all been bad. acquiring the energy they of Financing development Thre is no way that Govern- need, that help should be in high cost remote areas ment can legislate or regulate given. As a nation, we must would be impeded by the the subtleties of a free market respond to the needs of our financial disruption caused the system. The cost of goods and people. As a nation we must companies. Prices wrould be services required by a also respond in our national interest and maintain a strong adversely affected by the loss company must be in relationof economies experienced by ship to the price the company and viable economy. We must an intergrated company and charges for its product. not choose now as the time to Dictated and often arbitrary regulate our domestic indusby the forced insertion of additional middle men into prices imposed on the intertries out of existence. the system. state sale of gas has been With the potentially devaswould be chiefly responsible for creat- tating possibilities of divesCompetition reduced because there would ing the natural gas shortage, titure and expanded regulation be fewer companies active in and for driving many small facing the oil industry, one is each of the various segments producers from the market. tempted to look back to the of the industry. Congress seems in general good old days when all we had There are those who argue agreement on this point, but to worry about w as whether or for divestiture on the grounds appears unable to extricate not someone was hiding gasothat it would be to the advan- itself from the situation. Fear line in an abandoned service tage of the independent oil that consumer prices will soar station. 7. FEB 3.1 APRIL IQ PKXefr VPS IRL R6T. PIMP PEACeWSCR 00 UP &PL AT tT9&: iz,l6. OCX. PtCKB? UP Sl&fcK KRl At MU K divestiture. No j company. They should lisfen been held, no more carefully to what the given. It wras a , independent is saying: C. John hip that nearly Miller, past President of the hearings had study reports shot from the passed. It has not been explained how divestiture will increase supply or reduce prices. In fact, the opposite is expected. Widespread disruption of gathering, refining, distributing and marketing systems would compound shortages; : KB5CW CF loroBHWioMAcr XI WRI1E- m AUP6ET MV 1 fyD.yan:'QcGrnqff:t - Independent OUT-- McCARTKV' MM R16HT5 rexusnawoo. - r. STRUCK-ou- tHI 0ml env toalpfSzi-r- r sn struck- out: mM7Z imp'TD PICKUP WO MORE (aeries. OP SeXVAL ant- - ATtooMeus HUMIUATTO) AUP ITS AU-1- UBeRMICU 0 OMfER&OCeMS THE pmen from FllS cvD GuO HALE. Pragmatic Dogmatics Utah as a Lesser Planet BY Kent Shearer True, Salt Lake City is to Mormonism as, on a larger scale, Canterbury is to Anglicism and, on a much greater one, Rome is to Catholicism. This theologic fact causes certain political confusion. It translates somehow into Utah is the center of the political universe. Copernicus kindled papal ire when he proclaimed that the sun did not revolve about our earth, and I suspect that my observation of Utahs political unimportance may border upon heresy. But Copernicus was correct and, although no Copernicus, so am I. So was Ronald Reagan when, recently, he cancelled a g Utah GOP appearance to concentrate, instead, on an important presidential primary in populous Florida. fund-raisin- Face the facts, folks. Utahs awards it two United States Senators, but only two of 435 Representatives. Its four electoral votes could never cast one way or quasi-sovereign- ty - have decided any presidential contest since statehood. Its delegates to a national political convention are, roughly, to that body as are those from Daggett C ounty to a Utah GOP or Democratic State Convention. Local wishes to the contrary notwithstanding, Utah has the same political importance as Idaho, Montana and New Mexico, and but slightly more than Nevada and Wyoming. There was once a time when presidential candidates of calibre delivered major addresses at Temple Square. But that was because of Mormon influence west of the Rockies, not due to Utah itself. And when in 1972 the LDS banned the Square for direct political purposes Salt Lake promptly was struck from campaign schedules, save for incidental, ceremonial and occasional courtesy calls on the First Presiden- another cy. lib The lessons this discourse proposes to teach are two: First: When Utahs national interests are at stake, it is wise to form a coalition with other Mountain States similarly situated. That is what, four years ago, Utahs GOP did to thwart an Eastern Republican move to reduce further regional National Convention impact. Second: It is in the enlightened of Utahns to devote more attention to the senaraces where we have importance-U.- S. torial, state legislative, gubernatorial, county, city, etc. -- than to those where we are realistically impotent, e.g. U.S. congressional and presidential. I harbor no illusions that my advice - sound as it is-- - will be heeded. The presidency, for instance, is where glamour resides, and we citizens of a minor plant no doubt will continue to devote an undue amount of our political energies to galaxy decisions in which our influence is utterly miniscule. We should not, but we probably shall. self-intere- st -- |