Show Administration balks at underwriting oil shale tests Carter administration officials officials of of- last week rejected a proposal by Sen Floyd Haskell D that the federal government pay for the testing of ways to extract oil from western shale deposits The officials told Haskell his plan to build demonstration plants and have them operated by private companies would be too loo costly and would delay rather than speed up the development of oil shale resources Associate Director George bJ of the Bureau Management and Dr S. S William Gouse a deputy assistant administrator of the Energy Research and Development Administration both urged that Congress not pass Haskells Haskell's bill to authorize the program testifying before Haskell's Haskells energy research subcommittee said it would take more than three years to achieve the same results already reached under an existing Interior Department oil shale program Gouse said Haskell's Haskells plan would result in the direct and immediate diate expenditure of hun hur of dollars by the federal government and place all the risks on the tax tax- payers The EHDA ERDA official said a similar program used from 1941 to 1955 to develop a synthetic rubber program had ended up costing the government million Due solely to inflationary factors it is estimated that a similar program in 1977 might cost in excess of 4 billion Gouse said HASKE HASKELL L criticized the Interior Departments Department's existing program for developing oil shale deposits in Utah Wyoming and Colorado saying it was moving much too slowly The Colorado CoMrad Democrat said companies which had been awarded leases for oil shale development should get on with the job or lose their leases Their feet should be held to the fire he said Leases were issued for two acre tracts in Colorado and two in Utah but work on all four has been stopped said the work was halted because it had not been possible to meet clean air standards lOUSE GOUSE said companies that would operate the government owned plants under Haskell's Haskells plan would have no incentive to cut costs and these would simply be passed on to the consumers lie He noted that President Carter proposed in his energy message that shale oil producers receive the world price for their oil and said ERDA believed this would be bean bean bean an adequate incentive for the private development of oil shale |