xt7brv0czb0z https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7brv0czb0z/data/mets.xml The Kentucky Kernel Kentucky -- Lexington The Kentucky Kernel 1977-04-27 Earlier Titles: Idea of University of Kentucky, The State College Cadet newspapers  English   Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. The Kentucky Kernel  The Kentucky Kernel, April 27, 1977 text The Kentucky Kernel, April 27, 1977 1977 1977-04-27 2020 true xt7brv0czb0z section xt7brv0czb0z Vol. LXVIII. Number 153
Wednesday, April 27, 1977

KENTUCKY

an independent student newspaper]

”—Jranns Wennss

Spring clean out

The end of the school year is almost here. and some of
the world's most experienced travelers—students—
are busy packing all their worldly goods. Often. the
most valuable piece of luggage is the one which gives
enough to cram more things into. Arts & Sciences

freslunau (‘heri Gillian is slashing together a lot of
things she may find hard to use back home: Why
would anyone pack four pairs of sandals to use in
Anchorage. Alaska? Gillian will travel 11 hours by
plane to reach the 19th state.

LTl students campaign
for more school identity

2 ,

FILM

University of Kentucky
Lexington. Kentucky

UK ponders buying
off-campus units

By SUSAN JONES
Copy Editor

The University may purchase
three apartment houses in the
Linden Walk-— Rose Lane area.

George Ruschell. UK assistant
vice president for business affairs,
refused to reveal the location of the
buildings, but residents at 404
Linden Walk said they had been
asked to move by May 15 because
their building was being sold to UK.

Margie Loeser. an architecture
senior who has lived in the Linden
Walk building for two and onehalf
years, said she had been informed
that the two other buildings being
sold are owned by the W B Co., like
hers.

’l‘he buildingsmight be thoseat468
Rose Lane and 411 Linden Walk,
according to The Lexington Leader.
Officials at the W B Co. refused
comment.

Ruschell said the buildings. if
purchased, would be used for
student housing, but he didn’t know
whether any students now living in
the units would be allowed to con-
tinue renting. The buildings contain
34 living units collectively.

“We are generally talking about
having a vacant building when we
make an acquisition, but there may
be some living there who could
continue. It would depend on the
circumstances,“ he said.

Loeser says it is unfair she is being
made to move so other students can

Amid controversies

Senate initiates new

By KIM Y ELTON
Kernel Sta if Writer

The performance of the student
senate this year includes several
succrsses and some controversies
that stirred hot debate. Most action
by the senate this semester has
involved providing students with
new and better services.

New programs and services this
year included the book exchange,
bus shelters, student govem'ment
iSGl legal advisor. tenant landlord
service, revising the “Making It"
booklet for freshman, the blood
donor program and other services.

present any plans to accomplish
these goals.

Several senate candidates during
this yea r‘s semte election said they
ran because of SG‘s lack of sen-
sitivity to women‘s issues.

Their complaints were in response
primarily to SG President Mike
McLaughlin‘s veto of a request for
funds to support International
Women’s Day.

Several senators attempted to
override the veto after a heated
debate during the next senate

Most of these measures were

quietly pased without objection

rent the apartments. “The
University is supposed to represent
us instead of kicking us out of
housing."

Ruschell said UK would decide in
a month whether to purchase the
buildings and that they are now
being appraised. if the present
owner, the W R Co.. agrees to the
price set by UK appraisers, the
University plans to purchase the
buildings, he said.

“As you know." Ruschell said,
“we already own some property in
that area.“

The five-year University land use
program includes plans to purchase
property in that area. According to
the plan, the area will be used for
student housing.

services

meeting. However. it failed when
Hal Ha ering, vice president, erred in
counting votes. At first count
llaering rectrded 14 votes in favor of
rescinding the veto—seven opposed.
He erred in not including one ab-
stention which counts as a no vote.
The attempt failed.

Perhaps the senate‘s biggest
blunder this year occurred when
senators failed to attend a
University Senate meeting where
the now infamous withdrawal policy
change was enacted.

Continued on page 4

By CHAS MAIN
Kernel Staff Writer

Student Government elections for
Lexington Technical Institute (LTI)
are being held this week. Polls in the
LTI building lounge will be open
until 4 pm. Thursday.

Only three offices will be decided
in the elections, as two candidates
are running uncontested. Cindy
Cattell and Steve Murphy are the
presidential hopefuls, Phil Flynn
and Joe Calloway are waning for

vice president. and Ancil Abney and
Pam McKrowsky are opposed in the
treasurer race.

No candidate filed opposite
Suzanne Beckett in the race for
secretary, or against Robert Biagi in
the race for sergeant-atarms.

Murphy and Cattell, the can-
didates for president, agree that
they both support the same issues,
and that whoever is elected will
receive help and support from the
other.

Tay Fizdale receives
86 teaching award

At their first meeting last night,
the new Student Senate elected Don
Prather, Arts & Sciences senator,
and .Jim Elder, Engineering
senator, to the senate council. The
council reports Student Govanment
policy decisions to the University
Senate.

In what was a shorter-than-usual
meeting, the Senate awarded the
outstanding teaching award to Tay
Fizdale. english assistant professor.

Along with the hmor, he received a
plaque and a $100 prize. '

Three other professors were also
honored with certificates for
exemplary instruction: Anne Fox,
Education; Robert Bray,
psychology: and Richard Oliver,
Business and Economics. The
senate gave the additional awards
became voting for the award was
very close, according to Cathy
Welch. vice president.

 

The most pressing need facing LTI
students, accordingto Cattell, is that
of identity.

“Until as recently as a semester
ago, students were ashamed to say
they went to LTI; they‘d say they
went to UK before they‘d say LTI,
andwe want to change that. Nothing
can be dare, though, without student
unity and support.”

One of the things which the two
presidential candidates agreed was
needed at LTI is a yearbook. LTI
students have no yearbook of their
own. and are not eligible to be in-
cluded in the UK yearbook.

“We’ve always been told we hadto
go to UK to get the things we want,"
Murphy said, “and that’s fine, but
we want to have pride in our school;
we want to be able to stand up on our
own two feet."

Current LTI SG president Bob
Gravatt defines LTI’s problem as a
lack of “equality with other colleges
in the state community college
system."

“We‘re .told we have access to
UK‘s facilities," he said, “and that‘s
nice. but we have no room here for
individual expression, for
develrpment of a cohesive student
m."

throughout the semester, and most

‘ meetings were conducted with only

minor political and personality
squabbles. _

()ne of the first controversises that
arose, however, occurred when
Jenny ’l‘ichenor, nursing senator,
submitteda resolution forSGto urge _
UK administrators to terminate any " '
contracts with General Electric
(GE). This was in response to GE‘s
stand against providing pregnancy
disability benefits. The Supreme
Court ruled in favor of GE's position.

Alex Christine, senator-at—large,
walked out of the meeting, upsetting
the quorum andendinga senate vote ,
on the resolution. Christine later
said he did not want to vote on the . _
resolution because he had not had “
enough time to study the issue.

The senate passed the resolution .
at the next meeting.

Despite the lack of controversy in
the senate. no group of students—
except one-the Young Socialist
Alliance, appeared consistently at
meetings or sponsored legislation.

Several candidates during the
Senate race spoke about this lack of
interest and participation. Most
promised to work to charge it.
However most candidates did not

MIKE MclAUGIIIJN

...S(l president is working to rescind class withdrawal policy

 

today

 

campus

Sytbrey ll. Mendel. a senior, has won a
GrawemeyerAward for an essay on German films.
He will receive expense money to travel this
summer in Germany and German-speaking
countries. The awards are offered annually by the
University of Louisville’s Department of Modern
languages.

The Universt is conducting a research program
in Bell County to determine how coal companies
can best revegetate strip mined land. Dr. Don
Graves, assidant professor of fwestry, said “one of
the things we wanttodetermineis certain levels of
catsndwhatscrnloperspr can get lorthernoney

he spends on reclamation." Graves said apple trees
are being planted on test plots at the Mountain
Drive Coal Co. site at Comar. adding that the
company relairned 1,500 acres in 1976.

nation

The Carter admhistration parted company with
corsumer groups yesterday and opposed legislation
designed to encourage development of consumer
cooperatives. The legislation would establish a new
federal agarcy to make an annual $250 million in
low-interest loam to nonprofit consumer-owned co-
ops.

President Carter meluded tats with Jordan's
King lluaehi yesterday and said it would be better

u

not to ha ve a (lcneva conference on the Middle East
"unless we see some strong posssibilities for
subdantial achievements." Hussein told reporters
that at Geneva conference “would be a disaster
without prior planting and without realistic ap-
praisal of all the difficulties and possibilities for
making progress in advance of holding the
meetings."

world

A dangerous concentration of gas yesterday
forced six American blowout experts to evacuate a
platform in the North Sea sha‘tly after they had
begun efforts to cap a four-day-old geyser of oil
from a nmaway offshore well. Officiah said‘thc
expknive gas built up alter the wind stopped, and

fi

the experts decided to postpone their efforts again.
A similar cahn had blocked capping operations
Monday morning. and gale-force win'ds Monday
afternoon prevented the Americans from getting
onto the ltravo platform. The well blew Friday
during routine mahtenance and has been speWing
aboutt9.tl10 gallon of oil a ndgas anhour since.

VD Day

Stand up and clap everyone because today we can
get our weekly date of vitamin D stratht from its
source. The sun is coming out again. Today will be
sunny and wanner with a hih in the mid 70‘s.
’l'might will be partly cloudy. The low tonight will
bein Ire nids'ro’s. Tormnowwlll bepartly cloudy
and warm. h'gh in the upper 70's. '

#

 

 

  

   

 

Withdrawal policy
should be changed

The ball is finally rolling. Because of student
efforts, the Senate Council yesterday voted to
place a prqiosal for rescission of the new with-
drawal policy on the agenda of next Monday’s
University Senate meeting.

For the first time this year, students in the
senate have taken it upon themselves to organize
a legislative push. Of course, the new withdrawal
policy might have never been passed in the first
place if more student senators had attended the
April senate meeting.

But the real weakness of the student caucus
has been a lack of organization or ability to deal
with the faculty in a non-adversary manner.
Yesterday was a complete turnabout.

SG President Mike McLaughlin presented a
good case for rescission of the policy and backed
it up with petition signatures from 5,000 students
and sourd administrative sense from Arts &
Sciences Dean Ben Black.

Now it’s up to the Senate. The chances for
rescission at next Monday‘s meeting are hard to
estimate. Some senators will undoubtedly resent
the students trying to rescind a measure passed
only a month ago.

But if McLaughlin and the others can present
as good a case as they did yesterday, without any
student senator standing up and delivering a
floor speech about how the faculty is always
screwing the students, they can succeed.

Under the new policy students have one
quarter of the semester to drop a class without a
grade. After that point, any student who wants to
drop must prove “urgent reeasons” or extended

illness and receive the approval of his adviser,
‘nstructor and dean.

The case against the new policy is strong.
Original proponents of the measure claimed it
would benefit students by preventing over-
scheduling. But Black .said at yesterday’s
meeting that overscheduling was actually higher
during last week’s registration than ever before,
presumably because students were anticipating
the stricter policy and wanted to increase their
options.

Proponents also argued that the new policy
would be an administrative plus, but Black and
other deans have already complained that they
will be forced to sit as judges to an overwhelming
number of different personal cases as students
try to prove “urgent reasons” for dropping a
class.

But the biggest problem with the new
procedure is that it restricts students. Most
students will find it difficult if not impossible to
evaluate a class in one quarter of the semester.

McLaughlin has asked that students talk to
their professors and find out if they are senators,
then urge them to vote in favor of rescinding the
policy.

We’re sure most of you are seeing your
professors more this week than you have all
semester so make the effort to tell them how you
feel. With enough faculty support, the rescission
will have a much easier time on the floor of the
senate next Monday.

It would make things much easier on everyone
next fall.

 

Act-tars

m

or- In.
I“ “or
Walter Illust-

John-Ink

editorialsd: comment's --~--

Editorials do not represent the Opinions 0! the University.

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Bad concert

Led Zepplin has no class

After reading Chas Main’s giddy
review of one of Led Zeppelin’s
Cincinnati concerts, I would be
interested to know what he thought
of’ their Louisville show. Were he to

 

commentary

 

state that he was again reduced to
fits of ecstasy, I fear only one
conclusion would be possible—your
taste, Chas, is in your feet.

In many years of concert going, I
cannot remember a more, to use
Scott Payton’s happy phrase, “mon-
umentally boring shitpile”—monu-

 

Theories galore

What strikes me as so peculiar
about the Biblical Creationists‘
recent denunciations of the theories
of natural selection is that, even if
their arguments are conceded, they
are left no better off than when they
began.

Rejection of the current “Dar-
winian" model may permit, but in
no way implies, literal Biblical
creation or, indeed, creation of any
kind. On the one hand, there are
many accounts of the beginning of
the world as equally unscientific as
that of the fundamentalist Christian,
from which one may chose when
evolution is denied.

0n the other hand, it seems
altogetha a bit unimaginative to
even assert that there was a
Crea tion—it might be the paucity of
human conceptualization that does
not allow us to imagine a thing
without a cause or maker.

In either case, arguments mar-
shalled against “the Theory of
Evolution." even if or when they are
effective, do not provide the
necessary warrant for alternative
accounts.

If Mr. Baumgardner and the
Campus Crusade for Christ, et al.
wish to make some converts, they’d
better start concentrating on coming
up with some more respectable
arguments for their own rather
provincial brand of Christianity
«'which, by the way, folkies, is not

the only brand around), and leave

thetheoreticaldisputesin biology to ~

the biologists.

John Fields

Philosophy junior

Thanks Albert

This letter is in response to Albert
Hatfield’s letter of April 26.

Congratulations! It’s about time
someone with his head on straight
spoke his mind about the rampant
(and no doubt Communist-induced)
alcohol consumption on campus.
This is a real problem (or ‘tragedy’
as you so aptly put it).

Everybody knows how harmful
drinking is—Iater liver failure and

probable .drug abuse—and we just‘

wanttolet’you knoW’th‘at there are
some people behind you. As we-all‘
know, alcohol surely leads to
corruptim just as masturbation
leads to blindness.

Albert, you didn’t mention what
nights (if not EVERY, God forbid! ),
these parties took place. We cer-
tame hate having people upset our
sleep on Friday and Saturday
nights! We're just glad to read that
there is at least one TRUE
AMERICAN left on UK’s lustful and
decadent campus!

AMERICA, LOVE IT OR LEAVE
IT!

The Men of Haggin 8-]

mental in its preposterous hype,
length, volume and gaudy self-in-
dulgence. The super star label has
never been more totally misplaced.

The show I saw in Louisville was
poorly done in almost every respect.
It was first and foremost too damn
long, including an obligatory drum
solo replete with Kiss fire bombs and
including as tedious an inventory of
electrical gee-gaws as one is likely
to hear. Such effects have been put
to much better use by others.

If drummer John Bonham’s ef-
forts were tedious, Robert Plant’s
were downright offensive. The man-
nerisms of the British rock star
become, in his case, almost a
parody. What Rod Stewart and
Roger Daltrey do with style, Plant
does with a plodding, inane self-

‘ ‘conscidtisnees thatis 'positrveiy’srck‘: ‘
cning to behold. His singing itself is

impossible to judge, so mangled is it
by electrical transformations and
senseless volume.

Jimmy Page’s guitar is, of course,
incredibly dextrous. That he can
pick is hardly in question, but in
Louisville at least, it was a sound
and fury signifying nothing, a virtu-
oso exercise which never gelled into
the kind of excitement one expects to
feel, what with :50 tickets and riots
at the gates. The acoustic set was
virtually lost in audience noise,
which says something about the
audience, but something more about
the band.

When the Stones slow it down,
people listen. When Pete Townshend

chords into the finale of the Who’s
Tommy medley, pandemonium
breaks loose. Nothing remotely ap-
proximating that sort of band-aud-
ience connection occurred with Led
Zeppelin last night, nothing even
close. In fact, it was nearly two
hours into the set, with half the
audience asleep or in the can, when
they finally got to “Kasmir,” gener-
ating a reasonable amount of audi-
ence interest.

“Stairway to Heaven” was anoth-
er peak of sorts, but the version was
unfamiliar and inferior. Then they
left and waited for 10 minutes or so
of clapping before coming back for a
brief encore, “Black Dog,” probably
the best bit of the night. Three hours
of playing and all that stand out are
_‘.f§laCI‘R9s’I.-'=m§.i‘Kasmir”~n°t an
especially stunning achievement.

‘When ‘a‘bar‘rd‘is as touted as this
one, comparisons are inevitable and
pale. The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd
(at least until their latest album),
Springsteen, Eagles, Robin Trower,
Frampton, one could go on and on.
In the final analysis, the most
interesting thing about this tour is
the hoopla—the rush for tickets, the
“sold out” signs, the riots, and for
what? This is a show that truly isn't
worth all that trouble.

J. C. Norton
Assistant Psychiatry Professor

[Editor's note: Chas Main agrees
that the Louisville concert was
terrible.]

Carter is exhibiting positive Presidential leadership

 

TRB

from Washington

There is no aspect of American government more
absorbing than the exercise of Presidential leadership
in a momentous ca use. I am persuaded that President
Carter‘s drive to conserve energy is such a cause.

I came to Washington in time to see the detested
Henry Cabot Lodge still in the Senate, the man who
defeated Wilson’s effort to take us into the League. A
quarter of a century later I watched Sen. Arthur
Vandenberg tit-Mich), the man who helped Harry
anman put the Marshall plan into effect. Without the
Marshall Plan we would have thrown away the peace
after World War II the way we threw it away after the
first war. Presidential leadership was central in both

episodes.

it seems preposterous at first to couple the energy
crisis with these war chapters—why, there isn‘t even a
“crisis“ at all, let alone a war; you can go to the
nearestfilling station and getall the gas you want. The
supply of oil may actually increase in the next few
years with the Alaska pipeline, and North Sea oil.

But I believe that a new era has begun, whether we
comprehend it or not, that in the world at large the
sumly of goods is being overtakien in some per-
ticulars by the supply of people, and that even in the
United States the Age of Opulence is about over and
thatwe mustbestir tarrselvesto save thedesrest of all
our posesstons, and most central element 1!

American life, the family car.

Jimmy Carter in his speech lastweek mentioned “10

to the people.

labo- tax bills.)

fundamentalprinciples. ” Woodrow Wilson had his ”14
points." The long-jawed Presbyterian had a sense of
uncompromising moral rectitude and when the Senate
balked at the League, he set out in his special train
“The Ma yflower” to carry his appeal over their heads

It would “break the heart of mankind,” he said, for
the United States to reject the League; it would bring
another war in 2) years; it would betray the “serried
ranks of those in khaki, not only those boys who came
home, but those dear ghosts who still deploy upon the
fields of France." He made them weep, he zig-zagged
8,000 miles across America, he made to eloquent
speeches, every are different, he hada stroke. And the
Senate rejected the League.

Presidential leadership was umuccessful. The
second world war came punctually.

Harry Truman had better luck. Thirty years ago he
sent his secretary of state, George Marshall, to
Cambridge, Mass, to propose what was then called
the “European Recovery Program.” (Un~
oer-secretary Dean Acheson advised against Cam-
bridge; nobody, he said, paid any attention to a
commencement address; indeed the Boston Globe,
gave it secmd place on page one, with the banner
headline goirg to a Truman threat to veto pendirg

Butwhen British Prime Minister Ernie Bevin heard
abort the June 4 speech he hopped out of bed and
eagerly called the Foreign Office. The United States
had takenleada-shb in a world problem, he found, to
save bankrupt Europe.

Withoutarry lights of cram Gen. Marital! math
statements thatsound a bit. so years latrr. like plain-

..pcamg Jimmy carter on W; last week: “Political

pastor: and prehdce shoukl have no part," he said.

“With foresight, and the willingness on the part of
peque to face up to the vast responsibility which
history has clearly placed upon our country, the dif-
ficulties l have outlined can and will be overcome."

America's allies asked for $22.4 billion in loans and
grants to restore their economies and when Foreign
Minister Molotov could not disrupt the meeting he
walked out. There was opposition at home, but
Truman had the advantage of a present and visible
crisis; the venom of Wilson‘s day didn’t exist, and

Vandenberg came to his support.

When Commun'sts seized Czechoslovakia Mar-
shall‘s warning was vindicated that a “very serious
situation is rapidly developing which bodes no good for
the world" America advanced $22 billion in the next
three years and Marshall Plan countries‘ economies

jumped 5 per cent ‘

When Carter talked on television last week he
reached more people in 30 minutes than saw the
downed Wilson on 8,000agonizing miles. He followed it
up with another press conference. He has since used
every device of modern Presidential leadership to get
the story over. He made exuaordhary concessions
and compromises, some (1 them awkward and

gracelas.

The $50 rebate which a few weeks before was the
heart if He economic stimukrs package was suddenly
dumped; he had second" thoughts on the pork-barrel
water propcts which he had previously justly
proscribei; le found hknself able to more than double
hb intial proposal. for farm support sparding over the
next four years. Mr. Carter was out hour; for
political allies in a battle which he. and world energy
experts, desperately wan. mm to win, out which he

may very well lose.

The difficulty is, of course, that this time the enemy
is not the Kaiser, not the Communists, but ourselves.
A further difficulty is to persuade voters, even if they;
acknowledge a crisis exists, that the proposed Carter
sacrifices are being equitably shared. He offers a
variety of complicated solutions each one subject to
attack by a powerful special interest group.

The solutions tend to be inflationary: the price of
gasoline and heating oil are going up, one way or
andher. Compensatory advantages to middle-class
and low-income groups are complicated and un-

certain. Senate minority leader and Republican

Presidential hopeful Howard Baker of Tennessee, who
know a political issue when he sees it, instantly
declares thathe is “unalterably opposed" to increased
gasoline taxes.

Gasoline cost the West Germans $1.43 a gallon, the

British $1.50, the Italians $2.13, but Senator Baker

appeals to the instinctive feeling of Americans that
cheap gasoline is somehow a Constitutional right.

it is a very chancey and uncertain battle. Mr.
Carter, if he had wanted to. could, as he'said, have let
it “driftalong for a few more years." That would have
been extremely damerous for America. I think he
showed character in attacking it frontally.

His solutions are. of course, subject to debate. Bu

as I listened to his quiet, eamat delivery, without a

leadership.

traceofthe much caricatured toothy grin, l thoughthe
was at lis best and that it was good fun and rather
splendldtoseeanew Presidaittakeonsomaw
powerful interest group and such a difficult task 1!

 

weekly.

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Renuhlc lingerie. It b when by Richard be
street. a veteran Wsskhgsea reporter. 13' appears

 

 
 
 
 
   
    
   
   
  
 
  
   
   
 
   
     
    
   
   
   
    
   
   
  
    
  
  
     
  
   
   
   
     
    
  
    
  
   
      
   
   
    
 
 
  
  
 
   
   
  
  
    
   
  
   
  
  
   
    
   
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
   
  
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
   
  

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THE KENTUCKY KENNEL. Wednesday. April 27. lam—3

 

comments

 

Gas indus

By THOMAS E. GIRARD
New York Times
News Service

WASHINGTON — Natural
gas is overpriced. Raising
prices paid to producers even
higher should not be the
centerpiece of a national
strategy designed to generate
greater supplies and encour-
age conservation. The key to
a sensible natural gas policy
is controlling the end use of
this finite commodity.

Natural gas producers, the
largest of whome are the
major oil companies, are now
able to sell some gas for
almost 10 times more than
they did in the early 1970’s.
It’s not that costs have risen
by anything approaching that
amount, but rather that the
industry has exploited a ma-
jor gap in Federal regulations
and has sought to keep pace
with the Organization of Pe-
troleum Exporting Countries’
(OPEC) oil-price leaps. Pro-
ducers have also contrived
events to make it appear that
critical shortages are upon
us, the objective being to get
elected officials and the pub-
lic to surrender to industry
demands for higher prices.

This winter, for instance,
there was enough gas to keep
people in Ohio from freezing
or losing jobs. Ohioans, how-
ever, became hostages in
their own homes because the
folks who owned the gas
didn’t want to sell it to the
folks who needed it unless
they paid a ransom of sorts.
That the price—not the wea-
ther or actual availability of
gas—was at the root of the
crisis was confirmed when
huge quantities of gas were

explo

 

 

try

 

 

 

 

piped north immediately af-
ter passage of an emergency
law permitting sales at un-
regulated levels.

This gas had been kept off
the interstate market be-
cause the industry detests
Federal regulations even
though the producers are
guaranteed 18 per cent profits
above all of their costs.

They have created a con-
comitant surplus in states
where the gas is found, like
Texas and Louisiana, be-
cause there are no price
ceilings if it is sold within
those states.

' Consequently, producers
acting in “anticompetitive”
and “monopolistic” ways—to
use the United States Su-
preme Court’s characteriza-
tions of 1974—have set intra-
state prices at whatever level
they want. Since the OPEC
embargo, they have been
pegging intrastate gas prices
to the artifically high world

oil price. That yields profit .

margins way in excess of

what Federal regulations per-
mit.

To correct this disparity
between national and state
prices, the companies, as well
as the Nixon and Ford Ad-
ministrations, have said reg-
ulations should be abolished.
All gas, they argue, should
sell for the same high price.
True, creating one nation-
wide price is the answer. But
deregulation is not.

Federal regulations should
be extended to the intrastate
market. Prices paid to produ-
cers should be determined by
the cost-plus-fair-return for-
mula now in use. The main
reason it has not worked has
been that some gas has been
allowed to chase higher intra-
state prices. Under a one-
price system, that incentive
would disappear.

New regulations are also
needed to eliminate wasteful
use of natural gas, such as
that for boiler fuel to generate
electricity. Other inappropri-

 

 

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row SHOWING!

The nicest movie

Camey‘s back and Tomlin‘s got him. you’ll ever see

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and blackmail.

ate uses, such as those for
large industrial plants,
should be phased out, with tax
incentives to promote con-
version to coal. Natural gas
should be reserved for homes,
small commercial establish-
ments, businesses that must
use gas for processing their
goods, and for feedstocks.

Talk of raising the price to
these users as a means of
conserving is one of the most
specious theories now being
advanced in the natural gas
debate. Take one of the 40
million homes served by nat-
ural gas—just how much flex-
ibility is there in consump-
tion? It’s possible to cut back
10 per cent, maybe 15 per
cent, but that’s about it.

Whatever the price, the 85
or 90 per cent remaining is
required to keep a home at
minimal temperatures and to
do other jobs such as heating
water. So higher prices, with
their regressive impact,
would have virtually no effect
on home usage.

 

iting us

A major fault of the Carter
plan is his proposal to scrap
the cost-based pricing for-
mula in favor of a system of
setting natural gas prices on
a par with oil~—the “BTU.
equivalency."

The major flaw here is that
we would effectively turn
over to OPEC the right to set
the price of our very own
domestic resource. Also, we
would provide a further prop
for the cartel’s oil price and
diminish further whatever
change there may be for
reducing the world oil price.
A variation of this concept
could be used to permit the
Government to tax certain
users—say big industrial
plants that could switch to
coal—as a way of making gas
as expensive as, or even more
costly than, other fuel sour-
ces.

The options open to us
should not be foreclosed be-
cause of the industry’s ability
to frame the natural gas
debate to date. Despite the
claims contained in