Word: petroleum
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There was a left-wing rumor that had a few days of life earlier this spring. A story was printed about stupendous petroleum possibilities in the waters off South Viet Nam. One could almost hear a great cry of "Aha!" rise up from all those people who have known all along that the Viet Nam War must be a plot of American capitalists. The great oil bonanza was soon deflated; among other things, a wire service had made a mistake in a figure, and 4,000,000 bbl. had become 400 million. Except to the farthest-out, craziest left...
...Hole. The Helium Conservation Act of 1960 locks the Government into contracts that do not allow for changes in either technology or demand. Under terms of the agreements with four helium producers (Northern Helex, Cities Service Helex, National Helium and Phillips Petroleum), the Bureau of Mines must annually buy from them increasingly large amounts of helium (4 billion cubic feet this year) at $12 per thousand cubic feet. But because of new production techniques, the companies can now produce helium, which is found in natural-gas fields, for far less than that. Furthermore, the Bureau of Mines is committed under...
...machines purring-is the sine qua non of an industrial society. The U.S. has been consuming it far more greedily than any other nation. Americans make up 6% of the earth's population but use approximately 40% of its energy-producing fuels. According to a study by the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, the nation's energy consumption since 1965 has been rising about 5% a year, or more than four times as fast as the U.S. population...
Higher Prices Ahead. For some time, letting in more oil from Canada and elsewhere should limit increases in energy costs. Nixon's import-quota task force estimated that the present controls cost consumers $5 billion a year that could be saved by buying more low-priced foreign petroleum...
...long run, however, the U.S. will have to accept somewhat higher costs for energy. The recent Mideast and Venezuelan oil-price boosts indicate that foreign petroleum bargains will not last forever. Domestic oil prices, while high by world standards, still make it profitable to extract only about a third of the oil from each U.S. producing well; the rest is too difficult to reach at prevailing prices. If the uncertainty of foreign supply eventually makes it necessary to draw more oil from U.S. wells, higher prices or tax incentives would be needed to develop the necessary technology. As for natural...