Show I Sen Garn favors gas deregulation With the Senate In the midst of considering S S. S 2104 the Natural Gas Deregulation bill Senator Jake Garn R RUt Ut Ut said that the bill does docs not go far Car farenough farenough enough and that he is supporting supporting sup sup- porting a substitute piece of or legislation Garn said S S. S 2104 Basically continues the program of oC government regulation but extends it to the intrastate market The Senator said that while the legislation allows for Cor a slight increase in the price of new gas from the current per 1000 cubic feet to per 1000 cubic feet Ceet it is far Car too loo little litlIe to do the country any good For some 23 years Federal price controls have held the price of natural gas below its replacement cost said Senator Garn This has discouraged the drilling of new wells and has created serious national shortages Many people are arc saying that the country will run out of natural gas within 15 years I dont don't believe that Geologists have known for years that huge quantities of new natural gas exist in environments where artificially low prices have precluded the drilling of new s- s The fl first American college of pharmacy was established in Philadelphia in 1821 G Good od things are twice as asgood asgood asgood good when they are short Baltasar Gracian wells So our problem is not one of running out ut of oC na natural tural gas its its it's one of oC getting it out of the gr- gr ground off And we we w won ouT om of the ground unless and until some Incentive for Cor exploration is provided Senator Gam Cam said he Is a cosponsor of oC and will vote for Cor decontrol legislation sponsored by Senators Pearson R-Ks R and Bentsen Tx D-Tx which decontrols the price of oC new natural gas sold in interstate commerce on or after January 1 1977 I am concerned about higher natural gas prices working a hardship on consumers said the Senator I have a gas furnace and do not look forward to higher gas bills However without increased natural gas production factories and schools will be forced to close as they did last winter workers will be off ore and consumers will be forced to switch to more expensive substitutes such as imported liquefied natural gas Again the only way we are going to get increased production is to let the free market work to establish a pricing structure sufficient to tomake tomake tomake make exploring and drilling for new gas more feasible than it now is |