Word: decontrolling
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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UNFORTUNATELY NEITHER the decontrol of oil nor the production of petroleum from unconventional sources nor divestiture of the oil companies is likely to reverse the decline in domestic oil production. The argument that decontrol of oil prices would encourage oil exploration does not obscure the fact that "over 2 million wells have been drilled in the United States--four times as many as in all the rest of the noncommunist world combined." Shale oil would cost far more than conventional oil and takes too long to develop--"a production level equal to about half of one percent...
...Congress eager to take some kind of action on energy, but sadly confused as to what to do, and a bewildered and increasingly frightened public. Carter will surely make another strong pitch for a standby gasoline-rationing program and his windfall-profits tax on oil companies, to accompany the decontrol of domestic oil prices that he hopes will arrest the decline in U.S. oil output. That scarcely adds up to a sweeping program. Unhappily, the only group that seems to have a clear idea of how it wants to manage the energy crisis is OPEC...
Probably a more efficient measure would be to "ration by price," that is, to free the market and remove gasoline price controls. President Carter has the authority to do that, subject to congressional veto. Decontrol would cause a political storm because prices would immediately rise. Some experts warn that gasoline would soar to $2 a gal., but free market advocates argue that long-term prices would go up much less, by perhaps a few cents or a dime a gal. In any case, three facts are most significant. First, a free market unquestionably would reduce demand by raising the cost...
...House Ways and Means Committee approved a tougher tax or oil-company "windfall" profits than Jimmy Carter had proposed. The President's plan would have let oil companies keep 29¢ to 34¢ of each extra dollar in profit that they make from the decontrol of domestic oil prices that Carter began June 1. The Ways and Means bill reduces the figure to between 17¢ and 23¢. It is likely to be watered down in the Senate, and end about where Carter wanted...
...they a temporary inconvenience or ominous intimations of the future? The last gas crisis, in 1973-74, subsided soon enough. Perhaps this one will as well? According to the Gallup poll, more than three-quarters of Americans still believe that current gasoline shortages are a Big Oil contrivance. If decontrol begins, the assumption goes, prices will rise well above $1 a gallon...