The Virtues of Doing Nothing

An energy program based on less direction from Washington

Richard Nixon called it Project Independence; Jimmy Carter labeled it the "moral equivalent of war." Last week Ronald Reagan offered his own version of a national energy policy. Unlike preceding plans, the new approach calls, predictably enough, for less Government involvement in solving American energy problems.

In contrast to the insistent salesmanship of Jimmy Carter, who unfurled his 1977 national energy plan during a televised network address from the Oval Office, the Reagan White House downplayed its own energy debut to the point of near invisibility. Energy Department staffers simply presented the skimpy, 35-page report and answered press questions during a sparsely attended briefing in the basement of the department's building.

Said a DOE spokesman candidly: "The National Energy Act requires an energy policy statement from each Administration. If that were not the case, we would probably just as soon not have come out with a statement at all."

The document, which was long on free market rhetoric but short on specific proposals, made clear that the Administration has no intention of fashioning any new grandiose Government programs. This is a departure from the energy philosophies of the past three Administrations. When worldwide oil prices leaped in 1973 during the Arab oil embargo, the Nixon Administration sought to insulate consumers from the higher costs. Under Gerald Ford, energy regulation blossomed into a sprawling federal bureaucracy with responsibilities that reached into virtually every corner of the economy. Later Jimmy Carter reorganized and expanded the apparatus and gave it Cabinet-level status as the Department of Energy. Through all those initiatives, the U.S. energy troubles just worsened.

Even before the Reagan Administration's program was announced, its policy of less Government involvement in energy was clear. Since January, the Administration has scrapped virtually all remaining vestiges of gasoline and crude oil price controls, chopped $3 billion from the fiscal 1982 Energy Department budget, scaled back conservation and solar research programs, and sharply curtailed investment in synthetic-fuel projects. Reagan Administration officials admit that under such a free market energy program, fuel prices will rise until they reach world levels. But they maintain that the payoff will be more conservation of precious fuel, higher domestic energy production, and ultimately less dependence upon Middle East oil suppliers.

Presiding over the Reagan policy is Energy Secretary James B. Edwards, a South Carolina dentist and longtime Reagan supporter, who freely admits his lack of energy expertise. Under Edwards, plans have been made to cut from the department's payroll about 2,500 employees by the end of 1982, a 14% reduction that could become even more pronounced in the months ahead.

Nor was there much real surprise in last week's policy statement asserting that the Government should not have a role in curbing the import of foreign oil. One reason is that American consumption of foreign oil has lately been declining anyway, helped along by sagging demand from the weakening economy, and by increasing conservation efforts by businesses and individuals alike. Figures released last week by the American Petroleum Institute showed imports dropping nearly 23% during the first half of 1981, to 4.3 million bbl. daily. But the U.S. still imports more than a third of its total consumption and during 1981 is expected to spend upwards of $100 billion on imported fuel.

Continued dependence on foreign oil at anywhere near that level remains an inescapable and obvious threat to American security. As long as the U.S. must rely on often unstable governments in the Middle East for such a large share of its petroleum, the nation will remain vulnerable to disruptions and shocks aplenty. Thus, coping with the level of imports will be Washington's responsibility, whether the Reagan Administration is enthusiastic about it or not.

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