Show Meaning and Cure The spreading gap between petroleum production and consumption in the Uni United United Uni- Uni ted States is to receive more than academic attention from the great mass mass' massof of petroleum consumers And well it should bOuld As we are finding out the gap is there and can become unbridgeable unbridgeable able unless the public understands its meaning and its cure The problem is explained in a release from the Independent Petroleum Association Asso Asso- elation dation of America which says In 1973 the oil 11 producing capability of the domestic dom dome estic petroleum producing industry willbe will win willbe be 6 B million barrels daily below our domestic demand for petroleum fuels We have a real oil supply gap now filled Med by insecure imports of more than 30 percent of our requirements This gap is is widening constantly because of inadequate economic incentives to explore explore ex ex- ex for and develop our domestic re se sources An additional cause of the spreading gap between the production and supply of petroleum in the US U.S. which has received received received re re- little attention from the general public has been noted by another energy spokesman He observed that by 1985 American dependence on foreign oil on will rise to almost 50 percent and will win involve a balance of payment deficit of 22 billion a year for oil oU alone In view of the weakness of the dollar abroad the question arises as to whether such a large number of dollars would be accepted by rich oil-rich nations We might not be able to exchange dollars for imported imported im im- im ported petroleum at any price in the years ahead The petroleum shortage involved the manner of life and welfare of every everyone everyone everyone one of us Its solution rests on building a bridge of public understanding of the large energy resources that still await development in the US U.S. and of the inadequate in adequate price incentives as well wen as the environmental obstructionism that now block their discovery and use |