Still a Fuelish Paradise

With profound reluctance, the Wyoming legislature last week abandoned its drive to the end federally ordered 55-m.p.h speed limit. No matter. Most U.S. drivers laugh at the limit anyway. Meanwhile, homes and offices are overheated and empty skyscrapers are lit up like Christmas trees all night long. In short, five years after the Arab oil embargo, America remains a profligate consumer and waster of energy. If all the barrels of oil that the U.S. uses in just one day were laid end to end they would stretch the from New York to Calcutta.

To reduce consumption will require not only heroic conservation but also costly development of domestic sources and a switch to alternative fuels. Today's crisis may mean that needed reforms will get fresh attentions and new support. "Congress now realizes the seriousness ot the situation," says Energy Secretary James Schlesinger. " It is necessary to take advantage of short-term emergencies to sell the need for unpopular measures."

Just about the most unpopular idea was Jimmy Carter's thwarted proposal to impose a new tax on domestic crude oil that would sharply raise the retail price. U.S. prices are low by world standards; a gallon of regular gas that sells in New York City for 78-c- costs $1.55 in Tel Aviv, $1.83 in Bonn and $2.09 in Paris. Economists, bankers and independent study groups like the Trilateral Commission agree that substantially higher prices would drive home the reality of the energy crisis and the need to save. For that to occur prices would have to rise drastically -probably to $1 or more a gallon for gasoline -and Congress is not yet willing to go that far

Another unpopular measure to spare energy would be to moderate some antipollution regulations. The American Petroleum Institute estimates that the extra crude required to make unleaded gas for new cars with catalytic converters amounts to 140,000 bbl. per day, and the Department of Energy figures that yet another 500,000 bbl. will be added to daily demand if the next legally mandated reduction in gasoline additives goes through as scheduled in October.

Restrictions on strip mining will make it nearly impossible for the nation to meet Carter's goal of doubling production of coal to 1.2 billion tons a year by 1985. Demand for America's most plentiful fossil fuel is also being held down by expensive and rapidly changing regulations on the burning coal. Energy Department has tended to promote the use of coal,while the Environmental Protection Agency has been inclined to retard it. Nuclear power development has slumped. A major reason: complex and long-drawn-out regulatory studies and hearing give vocal minority a devastatingly effective forum for opposition and delay the building and licensing of new plants for an average of or twelve years or more.

At the same time, the U.S. has not fully exploited its domestic oil. Alaska's daily output could be increased from 1.2 million bbls. to 2 million, but there is not enough demand for the extra oil on .the West Coast and it cannot be transported east easily or economically. The Jones Act requires that the oil be shipped on U.S. vessels and that jacks up the price to unacceptable levels. A pipeline to carry the oil across the country has been stymied for six years. Initially the problem was just to get the necessary 700 federal state and local permits. Now California environmental authorities are blocking construction of dock equipment to handle the crude, for fear that merely unloading and pumping it into the pipeline would pollute the air.

Other forms of alternate energy are held up by the huge costs of development. This is particularly true of power from the sun, tides waves and ocean currents, as well as oil from tar sands and shale. These sources stand to meet only a small part of the country's energy needs in the foreseeable future because the technologies are expensive, risks are high and immediate rewards are small. Progress may well require more Government grants, loan guarantees and tax incentives. What is needed to ease the nation's dependence on erratic foreign sources of oil is spending, sacrifice and compromise.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.