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Show The Enterprise Review, August 25, 1976 Page 2b Redevelopment Board Votes to Sell Property Salt Lake City Commissioners, acting as the Board of Redevelopment, have passed a resolution to sell the property between 2nd and 2rd South along West Temple for a base price of $2.5 million. According to Mike Chitwood, director of the Redevelopment Agency, the base price was reached as a compromise between two independent appraisals, one for $3.04 million and one for $2.4 million. Within the next two weeks, Chitwood said, a public advertisement will be published, The advertising the property for sale. of date bids been has set anticipated opening for somewhere between the first and fifteenth of January, f Chitwood said. The contract to be offered to the developer winning the bid selection will be different from The contract will previous city contracts. require a 10 percent cash deposit. Before title is exchanged, the board will review the plans and the developer must have financing. Then the developer must meet deadlines to begin and complete construction, Chitwood ex .. Were I King If by D VanDeGraaff Executive Director, Utah Petroleum Association plained. In addition to passing the resolution, the Redevelopment Board, at its meeting last week, heard a report from Chitwood that $138,000 had been loaned to residents in central city and the west side to rehabilitate 26 homes and one multiple family dwelling. Chitwood also told the Board that within two weeks the sidewalk committee (reviewing plans for a masterplan for downtown sidewalks) expects to choose five out of the 13 The proposals submitted by architects. is of Commissioner committee made up Jess Elliot Vern and Planner Agraz, City Jorgenson Wolfe of Wolfes Sportsmans Headquarters. At the meeting board membere expressed concern about the availability of parking space in the downtown area. When the Performing Arts Center is built, a major source of parking space in the north end of downtown will be lost they said. They speculated additional support parking could be built at the south end of the Salt Palace. Some of my more radical friends tell me the energy crisis is the result of a well executed Communist plot. Or, at the very least, a deliberate plan by Socialists to insure the failure of the free enterprise system and thereby speed up the day when government will take over industry. I have always stayed away from the far ends of the far-opendulum. I am one of the last to accept extreme or ideas, and therefore I am not ready to believe that some super international organization is directing our state or federal energy policies. However, with the question in mind, I indulged in some What if there were such an recreational fantasizing. organization and what if I were its chief policy maker: What w'ould I do to cause an energy shortage in the United States and insure government take over of the energy industries? First, I would have government agencies pass regulations that impose costly new investment in small coal mines. This would close down over 5,000 of these small mines and push their customers into using more petroleum. Secondly, I would put artificially low regulated prices on natural gas. This would cause lack of incentive for drilling new gas wells and would increase usage because gas would be priced below other fuels. Then I would deny access to oil and gas that has already been discovered. I would do this by imposing regulations prohibiting the construction of roads, ut bridges or pipelines. It would be helpful if I could find a way to make automobiles less efficient in their use of gasoline and if I could block or delay the building of hydro-electri- c dams. I it could coal in to burn make illegal Perhaps This would push more the generation of electricity. customers onto petroleum. A moratorium on issuing permits for the construction of nuclear powrer plants would insure that still more gas and oil would be consumed in generating high-sulph- ur electricity. could refuse to lease prospects for oil and deep-wate- r of so owners would move to foreign gas, rigs countries. This would seriously impact exploration. It wrould be a good idea to change air and water quality requirements and rules every four to six months to discourage refinery construction or production plans. If a foreign war errupts, certainly I should support the side that doesnt have any oil. In public land states, like Utah, I could withdraw large amounts of land from multiple use and not allow oil or gas activities to take place on the premise that I am saving the land for other reasons. There should be created a federal agency to allocate crude oil; give them the power to tell refineries what to produce and where to sell it. This would disrupt the distribution system and virtually eliminate the business decision making process. I would insure that no building codes imposing insulation which would save energy currently being used for standards, and space heating cooling purposes, get passed. I should fund over 62 federal agencies to regulate the oil industry. This bureaucratic red tape and cost to industry in duplicating paper work would inhibit market movements and cause I off-sho- re off-sho- re delays. It would be important to pass laws to limit the size of to ban pipeline construction, and restrict refinery expansions. This could probably be done best by imposing unrealistic environmental regulations. Another good ideaw'ould be to use ocean going tankers to haul grain to countries of questionable friendliness. These tankers w'ould then not be available to haul petroleum products. There could be established price controls on pipe and tubular steel so that steel mills wrould turn to more profitable products. The shortage of pipe and tubular steel in the oil fields will reduce drilling and production activities. I could roll back the price of crude oil, thereby making risk capital more difficult to obtain and again restricting new There should be legislation that would development. dismember oil companies into smaller less efficient units and restrict the type of business activities in which they may become involved. If we can insure that oil companies can deal only in oil and not in other energy fuels, we can be confident that when the day comes that oil wells run dry, the ocean going tankers, , companies will simply cease to exist. It would be important to get the support of the media and perhpas some articulate politicians who would put the blame for any difficulties in the laps of the industry itself. This would create public support for what we are doing and insure passage of punitive legislation. Enough of the fantasy, it is turning into a nightmare. Fortunately for us. we know that nothing this ridiculous could really happen here in the land of the free. . |
