Word: petroleum
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...Tightened up administration of the program. Before Simon took over, regional branches of the Office of Petroleum Allocation, understaffed and lacking clear guidance from Washington, had built up a staggering backlog of 15,000 unanswered letters and calls from fuel customers anxious to know just how much oil they would be allowed to buy. The harried staff in the New York regional office took phones off the hooks so that no callers could get through. Simon installed experienced administrators in the offices and issued guidelines that have enabled them to reduce the backlog of unanswered letters...
...after three months of Arab embargo, blaring crisis headlines, long lines at gas stations and airline and auto-plant layoffs, the stocks of refined products held in the U.S. by oil companies are on the whole higher than they were a year ago. The latest figures from the American Petroleum Institute show that on Jan. 4 stocks of gasoline and residual oil (used to power factories and electric utility plants) were slightly lower than a year earlier. But inventories of jet fuels were slightly above those of early 1973, and refinery stocks of middle distillates (heating oils and diesel fuel...
...Commoner is among many skeptics who demand a far-ranging congressional investigation to uncover the true state of the nation's oil supplies. Politicians are beginning to listen. Democratic Senator John Tunney of California says that he will press for an investigation into the size and availability of petroleum supplies when Congress reconvenes next week. At least four congressional committees already have scheduled hearings on energy troubles. A growing number of people argue that the Government must have precise company-by-company petroleum inventory figures if it is to manage the nation's energy resources effectively...
...full impact of the oil cutback is still unclear, though there is general agreement that the economy eventually will adjust and continue to grow, despite its reduced energy diet, largely because businessmen and consumers will be forced to change their wasteful ways. Moreover, it now seems that the petroleum shortfall will be less than the thoroughly disruptive 3.4 million bbl. per day originally anticipated. Still, the jittery psychological climate created by the threat has enabled oil-exporting countries to raise their prices to towering new levels, and that will further fuel raging inflation in all industrialized nations. Says Walter Heller...
PRICES. Even before the energy crisis burst, the U.S. was in for a year of rising prices largely because of continuing shortages of many other products. Now the surge in petroleum costs will add devastating inflationary momentum; posted prices of Middle East crude oil have about tripled in recent months. For much of the first half of 1974, consumer prices for everything from gasoline to canned soup probably will be climbing at an astonishing annual rate of 10%. The best hope in Washington is that this rate will drop to about 4.5% in the second half, when officials believe that...