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Show The Enterprise Review , November 3; 1976 Page 6b Conservation? Just Not Enough Taxi Study Nears Completion The Wasatch Front Regional Council is nearing completion of a study for Salt Lake City Commissioners to help them assess the citys taxi needs. The study will concentrate on two major areas of concern and will supply commissioners with raw data, rather than recommendations, to aid them in determining whether or not the city needs additional taxi licenses. John English, head of the WFRC, said the council is compiling data to determine how taxis are regulated in other cities and how many taxis constitute good taxi service for a city the size of Salt Lake. The WFRC will complete the study sometime this week, English said, and give all compiled data to the We will commissioners. make no recommendations to the commission, he said, we will only provide them with data and leave the decision making (regarding the number of taxi licenses needed) to them. Under the direction of Steve McFarland, transpor- tation planner for the council, staff members have been contacting city officials and taxi companies in Denver, Boise, Portland, Sacramento, Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., Tuscon, San Diego, Seattle, Albuquerque, and El Paso, Texas. Firm Makes Low Bid on Regent St. The apparent low bidder for construction of the Regent Street Project is Gibbons & Reed Company, bidding $173,814. so-call- ed Neilson Scott Co., Inc. bid $175,312. Stephen L. Cornwall Co. bid $192,541. And Z. P. Smith, Inc. bid $240,370. City engineers had estimated the cost to be $198,145. Bids have gone to the city engineers office for WATCH FOR LATEST OPENING ON 3500 S. STATE s ' v s '. 9 v ' O' evaluation. The contractor selected will construct curb & gutter, sidewalks, and landscaping for Regent Street, Orpheum Ave. and the north side of 2nd South. by D. Van DeGraaff Executive Director. Utah Petroleum Association Conservation of energy is a noble cause. Along with motherhood and apple pie, conserving our natural fuel supply is a frequent topic of the platform pounders. Who can argue? Any rational person would agree that we should do all we can to avoid waste and eliminate excess when using valuable natural resources. However, there is concern when the public is led to believe that conservation is all thats necessary. Politicians and other drum beaters who preach conservation as a panacea to our energy problems are either misinformed or deliberately avoiding reality. At best, we can expect the amount of energy saved through conservation to be no more than ten percent of current use, and that's a high estimate, (the FEA has set five percent as a goal); five or ten percent is not going to solve the problem. Something else to consider is where the energy cutbacks will take place and how they will be promoted. It is not popular to ask John Q to use less fuel. After all, he votes and if youre in, hell vote you out. Therefore, John Q should be allowed to use all the energy he wants for his house, car, boat, lawn mower and electric card shuffler. If industry has to cut back, it means they will be forced to reduce production and that means unemployment and shortages. Commerce? The same as industry. Transportation? Distribution of supplies should not be interrupted; fewer trains, trucks, planes would interrupt the business of doing business. Tourism? Ask a motel owner. National defense, Christmas lights where can we cut back? Maybe the federal government should pass a law then use creating a new agency to enforce conservation federal money to subsidize depressed areas. What about smaller cars and solar energy? Will they solve the problem? Small cars are fine if you can get people to buy them. Have you priced a solar unit for your home lately, or seen a solar smelter at the iron works, or ridden in a solar bus? If all the residential energy being used were converted to solar power we could only reduce our foreign oil imports by about half. Cars use less fuel when they are properly tuned. Should we pass a law requiring motorists to have an $80 tune-u- p so save of can $30 worth they gasoline? It is apparently unpopular to suggest that price be used as an incentive to promote conservation. Yet I can think of no universally applicable substitute; federal fiat not excepted. If the price honestly reflects the cost and the market to believe conditions, I am just enough of a that thats the way to go. Wise use results from a fair price. Public education and national commitment are important but the market place is where the results are found. If our political friends were honest with us thats what theyd tell us. 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