OCR Text |
Show Mountain Fuel Says Gas Plentiful, But Urges Use Conservation Whenever and Vherever Practible ating plants. Concerning the Senate Judiciary Jud-iciary Committee's comments on nonutility activities and advertising, ad-vertising, Mr. Kastler said non-utility non-utility diversification has benefited bene-fited the company without any cost to its gas customers, and that "advertising is a legitimate business expense and is as necessary nec-essary a part of our operations as it is of any business enterprise." enter-prise." With regard to advertising, he said "It would be grossly unfair, and we believe of questionable ques-tionable constitutionality, for the legislature or any government govern-ment agency to deprive us of this fundamental right." Salt Lake City Although Mountain Fuel Supply Company Com-pany has excellent natural gas reserves at the present time, it still urges gas conservation "whenever and wherever practicable" prac-ticable" but does not want its customers to be , misled or frightened into believing "the gas industry is done for," said B. Z. Kastler, president, in an address Thursday to Utah news media representatives. "If our customers are well and able" he continued, "we will be most pleased to see them conserve natural gas and all other energy they use, including inclu-ding electricity and petroleum products of all kinds. We do not wish to be singled out, however, so that our present and potential customers will be frightened away, for no reason, to another fuel or energy source which may be seriously exacerbate both the energy shortage and pollution problems." prob-lems." Mr. Kastler said the company's com-pany's gas supply will meet the demands of its residential and commercial customers "during the coming winter and for many future winters" and that the company is not about to run out of natural gas. He also talked about the en-, en-, vioronmental advantages of ' natural gas and Mountain Fuel's comparatively low rates, the reason why "interruptible" gas users are curtailed in winter win-ter months, and the recently announced consensus position of the Utah State Senate Judiciary Judi-ciary Committee concerning public utilities. Mountain Fuel's supply position posi-tion is considerably better than that of most other gas distributors in the nation, he declared, primarily because of two factors: "We explore for, find and produce a sizeable portion of the gas we sell, and we operate in an area which has been productive of oil and gas for a long time and which stil has great undiscovered potential." There also is a tremendous potential for new gas supplies throughout the nation, he pointed out, citing such possibilities possib-ilities as deeper drilling in the continental United States, further fur-ther drilling in the Outer Continental Con-tinental Shelf area, Alaska and the Arctic Isles, nuclear stimulation stimul-ation of tight production sands, importation of LNG from other countries and the manufacture of gas from coal. Natural gas is the major source of energy in Utah and is criticaly important from both the environmental and conservation conser-vation viewpoints, he said, because be-cause it is the cleanest burning of all primary fuels, and can produce heat with more than twice the efficiency of electricity electric-ity produced by thermal gener- |