Striking Back at the Chill

In a fuel-short world that is turning colder, anxious men generated their own kinds of heat last week. Governments on both sides of the Atlantic imposed tough new constraints on industry and citizens. Britain prepared to go on a three-day work week and took other measures that Prime Minister Edward Heath said would give the nation "a harder Christmas than we have known since the war" (see THE WORLD). In the U.S., airlines drafted plans to drop a fifth of their flights next month, and a series of protests against the fuel cutbacks--by pilots, truck drivers, gas-station owners --gave a tinge of anarchy to the week's events. All the while, the Arabs deepened the chill by announcing further oil-output reductions.

In Washington, the Government moved with a new purpose and direction. Acting with what for it was blinding speed, the House passed the energy emergency bill, disposing of scores of amendments in three days of debate. The bill still faces a prickly conference to reconcile Senate and House versions (the Senate would permit the Administration to order rationing and other conservation steps subject to a congressional veto within 15 days; the House would place far more stringent constraints on the White House). It should become law very quickly. The Senate gave industry some new mandates; it passed a bill that would force manufacturers within 15 months to paste "energy efficiency" labels on all major household appliances. Longer range, the Senate bill would compel automakers by 1984 to increase fuel economy by an average of 50% or more over that of 1974 models.

Parking by Number. Energy Czar William Simon wasted no time waiting for Congress to grant him new powers. At midweek he issued a set of energy marching orders, some of which can take effect only when the energy emergency bill becomes law. Under his ukase, lighting inside all commercial and industrial buildings will be dimmed. Simon also proposed that lights on major highways go off except at ramps and interchanges. Limousines and heavy sedans will be taken away from every federal official except President Nixon and Vice President Ford, and all federal vehicles will be driven 20% fewer miles. Parking space in Government lots will be assigned not by rank but by the number of passengers arriving in each car. Surveillance will be placed on petroleum exports, which are minuscule in proportion to U.S. consumption but a prime source of suspicion to skeptics who still see the energy shortage as a plot.

Simon also announced a revised set of allocations, put together hastily by his Federal Energy Office to meet a Congress-set deadline. They contained one monumental blooper: as originally put forth, the regulations would have forced refineries to cut gasoline production 25%. After a day of scare headlines and stock market rout, the FEO confessed its error and announced that it would really order only a 5% reduction, based on 1972 levels.

Smaller Gap. Otherwise, the allocations generally provide that, in descending order of priority, community services such as fire and police departments, public transportation, farmers, fuel producers, the military, hospitals and clinics, utilities and ships will be able to buy as much diesel and heating oil and gasoline as they need; the Postal Service, cargo handlers, doctors' and dentists' offices, food processors and manufacturers can buy up to 10% more than they used in 1972; business and Government bulk purchasers can buy as much as they did in 1972; homes and most businesses can get enough fuel to keep thermostats 6DEG to 10DEG below 1972 settings. Most airlines will get 85% of what they burned in 1972. Pilots of light planes will get 70% of their 1972 consumption.

All that assumes, of course, that there will be oil and gasoline to purchase. Government planners were buoyed last week by new official estimates that the gap between U.S. petroleum supply and demand next quarter will be about a quarter-million bbl. per day less than the 3.5 million bbl. shortfall originally forecast. In addition, they hope that conservation measures already in effect, such as gasless Sundays, will save as much as 1.9 million bbl. per day. They can point to some encouraging signs: nationwide demand for petroleum products fell 7.2% below forecasts in the last three weeks of November, and Massachusetts heating-oil dealers' sales have been down 15%, thanks to a mild fall and consumer saving. On the other hand, some members of TIME'S Board of Economists, who gathered last week for a forecasting session (see following story), fear that U.S. stockpiles of oil and gasoline will be nearly gone by March or April, producing a disastrous squeeze, unless consumption is cut much further.

In any case, controversy provoked by the allocations could wreck the travel plans of many citizens.

Angered by the widespread flight cancellations and layoffs (see story page 25), some Eastern Airlines pilots were threatening a four-day protest strike to begin this Friday. If they carry out their threat and get pilots of other lines to join them, they will snarl travel over the peak flying period of the year. Americans planning to visit distant relatives for the holidays will have to contend with plans by some gas-station owners to close up shop for three days over both the Christmas and New Year weekends.

The dealers, who are upset by lower allocations and lower profit margins, will shut down for gasless Sunday, not to reopen until the day after each holiday, depriving many motorists of the chance to fill their tanks on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

Gasoline pumps at many truck stops were involuntarily shut down last week by continuing truck-driver protests. Two weeks ago the truckers, mostly independent owner-operators, blockaded highways in nine states, causing hours-long traffic tie-ups. Threats of arrest in many states and of jail sentences of up to six months in California, kept them from repeating that tactic last week. But thousands of truckers simply pulled into truck stops and sat there for two days, sometimes barricading pumps so that truckers who did not join the protest could not fill up. Some drivers who stayed on the road found that their trucks had been disabled while they ate at roadside diners; others ran into flying bricks or even gunfire.

One Snowflake. The striking truckers again used citizens' band radios to coordinate their efforts and communicate their mutual suspicion that the fuel shortage is the result of a conspiracy between the Nixon Administration and the oil companies. To their previous demands for relief from 55-m.p.h.

speed limits and high fuel prices, the truckers added another: the right to inspect the oil companies' storage records.

Even Christmas-light makers were protesting last week, though in a minor key. They proclaimed in a full-page ad in the New York Times: "This year, America needs a bright Christmas, Mr. President." The ad claimed that Christmas lights use less than one-fortieth of 1% of the nation's electrical energy, and urged the public to turn off two 100-watt bulbs or double up two days' dishes in the dishwasher to save enough energy to power their displays. If the President saw the ad, he did not reply. The national Christmas tree went up on the Ellipse south of the White House with a battery of floodlights but just one lighted snowflake at its apex.

For all the protests, fuel shortages in the U.S. hardly compare with those abroad. The hard-pressed Swiss government reacted to its gasoline squeeze by closing its borders to foreign vehicles unless their tanks were at least two-thirds full. Holland will begin gasoline rationing Jan. 7. Last week some Dutch motorists were buying up old jalopies-not to drive but for their registration documents and the coupons they will yield.

As the industrialized nations of the world writhed in discomfort, the oil-producing Arab states closed the spigot one more notch last week, announcing a January cut in production of 5%. That will reduce the flow to oil-hungry Europe and Japan to less than 70% of last September's level. What oil continues to flow is going at astronomical prices; Iran, a non-Arab country that has not joined the boycott (see story page 27) sold some oil at auction for as much as $ 17.40 per bbl., probably the highest price ever paid for petroleum anywhere. The quantity involved was relatively small-but the sale gives Western industry ample reason to shiver at the thought of what kind of Christmas gift the Middle Eastern producers may prepare this week when they huddle over revision of official prices.

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