Word: petroleum
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AMERICA'S LONG-LASTING marriage to the automobile, and the heavy dependence of the national economy on petroleum, has given birth to an international oil industry that has been able to exert an overpowering influence over its parents. The overgrown offspring is a quasi-autonomous international cartel that often gives it own interests priority over those of its mother country. Abuse of the economic and political power by the oil companies was not the sole cause of the recent quadrupling of world oil prices, but the industry has moved to suppress the entry market. The discouragement of synthetic fuel research...
...American economy depends on the oil companies for all of its petroleum, which fulfills over 40 per cent of its energy needs, and for much of its coal, which supplies about 20 per cent of the nation's energy. It is now in the national interest to widen and vary America's energy sources but the oil companies do not want such diversification. The introduction of new synthetic sources of energy would reduce both the major companies' profits and their control over the market...
...energy market is the publicity campaign it has waged against the introduction of methynol additives to gasoline. It has long been known that methynol--also known as wood alcohol--which can be derived from coal, natural gas, wood waste or recycled garbage, can be added to gasoline to stretch petroleum supplies and improve mileage. The widespread use of automobile fuel, composed of 70 per cent gasoline and 30 per cent methynol could eliminate American dependence on foreign oil supplies. But the oil industry claims that adding methynol to gasoline reduces mileage and acceleration, causes corrosion, and would require the modification...
...over the long run. They oppose Ford's scheme to reduce consumption by raising the price of oil because it would be a drag on an already sagging economy. Says a Senate staffer who specializes in energy: "There is no need for a sudden drastic cut in petroleum imports that would add to unemployment and choke off economic recovery...
...been spectacularly successful at developing new production. A U.S. federal energy corporation, they say, could not add much to private industry's expertise in exploration and production. At the same time, oilmen raise the specter of socialism. "What comes next?" asks Frank Ikard, head of the American Petroleum Institute. "How about a Federal Livestock Corporation? Or a Federal Iron and Steel Corporation...