Show Voice of Business Understanding IO the energy problem f Dy fly Arch Booth president of ot oft otI t I the Chamber of Commerce of or the United Slates States While Congress and the Administration debate the best way to reduce our fuel consumption reports are coming in that there is plenty of oC petroleum around The apparent conflict is confusing a alot lot of oC people j P To unravel the mystery you y i have to break down the energy problem into its four Cour component parts Part Four Problem t 1 Geological There is plenty of or fossil fuel Cuel for Cor our present needs It is not all in the U U. U S. S It ItIs Itis Itis is not all immediately available It is not all recoverable inexpensively And it is not all in the most convenient form Corm But its it's there 2 Environmental The more we limit exploitation of oure our e energy ergy sources on environmental grounds the themore themore themore more expensive the remaining sources will become It would be nice if IC that weren't so but it is Unquestionably we we need to take some steps to keep from poisoning ourselves But we must also consider whether we can afford the cost of perfection when perfection may not be necessary 3 3 Economic The western world in general general- general and and the U. U S. S in particular particular cannot cannot afford to continue paying the high price for petroleum set by bythe bythe bythe the foreign oil producers' producers cartel Right now the U. U S S. S is like an individual who is spending money faster than he earns it and borrowing to cover the difference That process cant can't continue indefinitely either for Cor an individual or a nation Once our our international credit is exhausted we will face a continuing decline in the international value of the dollar Such a decline would cause shortages and higher prices within n the U. U S. S 4 Political The United States cannot allow itself to remain hostage to a small group of states in one of the worlds world's prime trouble spots COMPLETE sufficiency self-sufficiency is not necessary to regain our energy independence but at the least we must be able to avoid dangerous dependency on any single country or bloc of oC countries To reach that state we must devel develop fully Cully our own plentiful reserves of oC fossil fuel Cuel as well as a capacity to use alternative energy sources Because none of oC these alternative energy sources can now be produced as cheaply as the true economic cost of oC Arabian oil about 40 cents a abarre barrel barre they will not be developed unless there is some form Corm of oC insurance against predatory price cutting and dumping by the OPEC nations How lIow to Cut So it is for reasons three and four that we need to cut our energy consumption not because of any shortage of oC fuel Cuel That gets us to the question of how to cut I certainly favor using the market to allocate alloca te supplies rather than some clumsy form of oC government direction But I dont don't think I i there is a need need need-at a at t this time for the stiff tariff plus tax plan advocated by the Administration SIMPLY decontrolling domestic oil and natural gas prices would result in some price increases and a decrease in demand It would also stimulate domestic exploration and production which is something that cant can't be said for fora a tax increase Yes Ves decontrol would increase the income of the energy in in- But the industry will need between and billion in new investment capital t by y 1985 if w were we're re going to continue to have an adequate energy supply Therefore its it's highly probably that higher industry profits resulting from decontrol would be plowed back into new production If the industry did not appear to be using its greater weater income responsibility then that tha t would be the time to examine oth other r alternatives less efficient alternatives to limiting demand and expanding production |