LETTERS
LETTERS Brickbats Jonathan Alter's "With Friends Like These" [January] was excellently informative on who's who and what for, on the donkey side of the "two-party" team. So much for one kind...
...Lloyd, deputy assistant general counsel for Enforcement, did not read the study...
...Fact: Natural gas decontrol will result in more gas production than will occur under the NGPA and this will mean less U.S...
...it tells you where they're coming from...
...Some gas sells for as little as 20 cents or less per mcf at the wellhead while other prices are as high as $9 to $10...
...Then there's activating oxygen with microwaves which "transforms the gas molecules into a highly reactive state...
...The Almanac of American Politics provides invaluable data about the district and political background of a member of Congress...
...prices are rising while many industrial gas prices are declining or holding steady...
...I hope your December issue has a strong effect on the government and the people...
...or how come operating such a simple process treats waste "at a cost of $400 per wet metric ton.' That's 40 cents per quart of water processed, the sale price of most soft drinks...
...Piqued about PACs Seeing your booknote on PACs Americana ["Political Booknotes," January], a friend suggested I send you the press releases and sales flyer on the book...
...Steamed about Leg Warmers I have spent moons patiently reading your atavistic views on women and what they do with their lives, and have gallantly held my temper though frequently on the verge of wanting to hit you over the head with a leg o'mutton...
...Now, Piasecki may not know the principle on which microwave energy is transformed, but can he be excused for not wondering how come this process which "operates...
...What is its possible effect...
...Let me justify that allegation with two examples...
...The point is, first, that everything is made of chemicals and that every one of them can poison, even water and, yes, air...
...One cannot only drown in water, but even die by ingesting too much of it...
...Rachelle Patterson is director of public information for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission...
...Unlike Tip O'Neill and the other Democrats who support Davis-Bacon, our aim is to put as many people back to work as possible through public jobs...
...Lower of the Consumer Federation of America and concluded that it was not useful at this time...
...Indeed, just in the last year the Canadians have successfully marketed MWP trucks...
...Second, the article implies that Mr...
...Further, your reporter implies that this agency is not concerned with overpricing because it is using its own methods and data instead of Ms...
...Well, frankly my dear, I don't give a damn that you're a gentleman who prefers Hanes...
...Whall quite understandably prefers $16.50 to $8.25 an hour, but does he prefer $8.25 an hour to no job at all...
...I would hope so...
...LUBEROFF Summit, New Jersey B.J...
...1 never accused the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission of concluding that there was "no violation of the law...
...with the same ease that microwave ovens handle baked potatoes" doesn't blow up his kitchen whose atmosphere contains over 20 percent oxygen...
...The remarkable good news of my piece is that risk/ benefit analysis is now on the side of safe detoxification facilities—instead of continued dumping...
...as my article pointed out, according to the EPA itself this cost can be reduced to one-tenth that if the technology is put to use...
...I have no way of knowing whether FERC has been diligently investigating all cases of overpricing...
...I can report that Lower's research has been receiving a great deal more consideration from FERC since the article appeared...
...After expert enough journalistic "balancing," Alter's chief prescriptions are that the American people's so-called "entitlement" programs be slashed and its workers should patriotically take a 50 percent pay cut, to prime a profit pump whose implacable suction already has left us where we are...
...Alter feels that only overpaid blue-collar workers should make the ultimate sacrifice for their "brethren...
...Two years later, proved reserves started increasing, primarily because NGPA provided much-needed incentives for exploration and development of new reservoirs...
...How sure are we of that and, then, what cost are we willing/able to afford to change those relationships...
...Whether producers have been collecting and consequently pipelines paying in excess of the maximum lawful prices under the NG PA has been and continues to be the subject of non-public investigations by the commission's Enforcement Division...
...But the real problem is not Piasecki's lack of technical acumen...
...The author replies: Ms...
...rather, I said that FERC officials, (including Patterson) asserted, without being specific, that violations were not apparent from Lower's allegations that pipelines are purchasing pre-1973 gas at prices substantially above the legal ceiling...
...And if they make my calves look fat and prevent you from ogling my well-turned lower limb, tough...
...With friends like you, whom else does Reagan need...
...Lower's...
...As for Joe Flom, Bruce Wasserstein, Guy WyserPratte, as well as a good many others who are known only by their actions, WITH AMERICANS LIKE THESE, WHO NEEDS RUSSIANS...
...abrogating these contract provisions while retaining NGPA will permit pipelines to purchase the lowest cost supplies while still providing incentives for additional exploration...
...Watkins...
...Probably what Piasecki had read about were organic compounds that contain chlorine and that are toxic...
...The author replies: Mr...
...by effectively tying all gas prices to oil prices, decontrol would ruin the best chance we have to break free of the OPEC stranglehold that has so debilitated our economy...
...The real issue is how to price gas in a manner that produces the most good for the most people...
...It's the only listing anywhere of the interests behind all of the PACs...
...The commission is conducting a number of investigations into possible overpricing of natural gas, all of which are confidential pursuant to the commission's rules relating to investigations...
...Watkins: "The call for decontrol also ignores the best and most obvious solution...
...oil imports...
...Obviously there is no such thing as chlorine that contains carbon...
...PETER J. WHAM_ Brookline, Massachusetts The author replies: Believe it or not, everyone at The Washington Monthly works for much less than $8.25 an hour, but that was not my point in urging a waiver of the DavisBacon Act...
...Edward Roeder is the author of PACs Americana...
...You are obviously a bovine of the ilk who holds passionate feelings about women's calves and righteously believes that we should kowtow to your every moo...
...I find it telling that Mr...
...Indeed, according to the pro-decontrol Department of Energy report I cited, old-gas decontrol will reduce incentives to look for deep gas, accelerate depletion of already discovered reservoirs, and lead to increased oil imports by the late 1980s...
...Watkins overlooks the numerous distortions and peculiarities in natural gas markets caused by the system of federal price controls: —Users in some areas are paying more for their natural gas than users in other areas—in some cases, as much as 75 percent more...
...Reserves now constitute only about a ten-year supply at current production rates...
...in contrast to ovens, MWP works by using pure oxygen in a pressurized container to cause a chemical reaction—not an explosion...
...In that regard, Hardy's "facts" actually prove that abolishing NGPA would be counterproductive...
...Luberoff does not contest these important developments...
...It is also possible that were I or Mr...
...Leg warmers are an item used by dancers and adapted for general use by women because they serve a very real purpose—warmth...
...But the NG PA is hardly working when it keeps so much of the nation's gas under price controls, thereby sacrificing a great deal of production from known gas reservoirs...
...it is his failure to grasp such basic concepts as risk, cost/ benefit analysis, or even toxicity...
...Luberoff is right in inferring that I meant organic chlorine compounds when I wrote "organic chlorine...
...Luberoff himself would be the first to admit, just because a product like carbon tetrachloride is hazardous does not mean it is not useful...
...Your reviewer is wrong in saying that "the only people who'll be interested in making this $200 investment are candidates seeking a handy guide for soliciting contributions...
...And as Mr...
...Fact: Although the United States has the estimated potential to produce enough gas to last at least another 50 years, at current usage, the country's proved reserves (gas that has been discovered and could be produced under existing economic operating conditions) have fallen by one-third since 1968 and are smaller now than when the NG PA was enacted...
...A Davis-Bacon waiver would of course be structured so as to assure that the lower wage would come only in exchange for additional job creation...
...Concerning the Natural Gas Policy Act, Alfred Watkins counsels us, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it...
...Nonsense...
...DONALD KENNETH STEVENS Mill Valley, California I happen to be a Boston union bricklayer and I have a small proposal to make to Mr...
...Fact: A legislative abrogation of take-or-pay clauses, as some in Congress have proposed, would have no effect on factors that cause 84 to 88 percent of increases in consumer gas prices...
...There are many things we can do that we can't—or won't—pay for...
...Those increases are the result of distortions in the natural gas market caused by the NGPA—distortions that can be alleviated effectively only if controls are removed...
...Since enactment of the NGPA, we have used more gas than we found in every year except 1981...
...Watkins: "By partially decontrolling prices, the NG PA did exactly what any Economics 101 freshman might have predicted: it increased natural gas supply...
...The technologies that Piasecki selects to advocate area mere sample of what's possible...
...The exploding microwave oven is completely off the point...
...PETER FENNEY Berkeley, California...
...dependence on 0 PEC oil...
...Alter and to other likeminded editorial members of The Washington Monthly-I will work for the "good wage" of $8.25 an hour when Mr...
...So much for one kind of iconoclasm, liberal or cynical or both, depending on the point of view...
...That is ridiculous...
...BARBARA MEHLMAN New York, New York Flammable Arguments Alfred J. Watkin's article, "Big Oil vs...
...Alter could do quite handsomely on half his salary—still retain that "good wage" that he proposes for me—and just think of all the unemployed writers who would be eternally grateful to him if he were to start a trend...
...Oxygen does not become inordinately reactive in the Bailin system I described (though it is in more modern devices...
...B.J...
...More than $65 million in refunds resulting from these pricing violations already have been flowed through to pipeline customers...
...Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are among them, so is carbon tetrachloride, a compound only recently recognized as highly toxic, but now that its hazard is recognized it is tough to buy, yet Piasecki thinks that the Hoechst process that converts "toxic residues...
...But this book enables the user to learn who sent them, or at least who paid the fare...
...The choice I posed is between employing two people at a decent wage and one at a very good wage, and the choice for Democrats should be very clear...
...Luberoff is editor of Chemtech magazine...
...It also left some misimpressions about the enforcement activities at this agency...
...One wonders what will happen when he finds out that all of the people in New York state who died last year had been breathing oxygen...
...Of course it is possible that Mr...
...That is not true...
...In fact, in large part because of the NGPA, we're now rolling in the stuff, the result of a natural gas rush that even the most die-hard free marketeers never imagined...
...NGPA was passed in 1978...
...Patterson misquotes me to defend her agency's record...
...The remark is like suggesting that you report changes in government personnel to better enable lobbyists to put in the fix...
...I did not say that Enforcement concluded there was "no violation of law...
...I'm sure that Mr...
...That is neither our intent nor the result of our very limited early sales effort...
...Some distortions are inevitable under any system of gas pricing, including decontrol...
...First of all, I told your reporter that our Enforcement Division looked at data organized by Ms...
...The pure oxygen is there to combine with microwave irradiated wastes, helping detoxify them...
...Residential gas...
...RACHELLE PATTERSON Washington, D.C...
...May I suggest that on a cold winter day in D.C., you don knickers (buckled above your knobby knees) and nylon hose, and then hike briskly once or twice around the Smithsonian and see if you don't make an apology to all women about their good sense...
...Harry Hardy is public relations director of the American Petroleum Institute...
...Under NGPA, price controls are discouraging exploration and production of all except the most expensive and hard-to-find gas—which is certainly not a way to help hold down gas costs...
...readers who grasp technology come away with the feeling of disgust that your respected publication has been made the tool of a fool...
...However, this last diatribe of yours about leg warmers ["Tilting at Windmills," January] was such bull, that it loosed in me a fury so wild and raging, I could no longer control myself...
...Luberoffs central attack rests on my supposed failure to appreciate risk/ benefit analysis...
...And, a standard way to sacrifice laboratory animals is by injecting air into the blood stream...
...Alter to follow his idea that the companies that we work for would simply pocket most of our sacrifice—but these notions are too petty, and I withdraw them...
...One of these private investigations, publicly announced by the commission on October 6, 1982, is an industry-wide investigation into possible pricing violations by both producers and pipelines under both the Natural Gas Act and the Natural Gas Policy Act...
...Congress can simply require pipelines and producers to renegotiate certain take-or-pay clauses, forcing gas prices to respond to supply and demand...
...Finally, Hardy's claim that take-or-pay contracts are not responsible for rapidly rising gas prices makes no sense...
...Watkins's article that are particularly at odds with the facts: Mr...
...Toxic Tango An article that recommends the detoxification of industrial wastes ["Beyond Dumping: The Surprising Solution to the Love Canal Problem," Bruce Piasecki, January] impacts on readers in one of two ways: Those who know little technology, but respect your publication, come away feeling concern, possibly frustration, and often fright...
...The context of my article and my reference to textile wastes told him as much...
...Pretty expensive waste disposal...
...As M r. Stevens should know, that is hardly an idea embraced by friends of Ronald Reagan...
...Under the artificially low price ceilings set by the NGPA, many wells are being abandoned prematurely because producers cannot cover the costs of enhanced production techniques or even the cost of maintaining existing equipment...
...If we are to learn from the lessons of the 1970s, we should recognize the problems caused by NG PA price controls and support phased natural gas decontrol by January 1, 1985 as the most practical solution to these problems...
...As for the role of oxygen in MWP trucks, I was misinformed by my sources...
...Here are three statements in Mr...
...Oxygen is inert to microwaves since its molecule has no permanent dipole...
...EDWARD ROEDER Washington, D.C...
...It is for that reason that we are unable to provide more specific information...
...Thus the risk questions we must all address constantly and completely is, how much of what is where...
...Anyone who recalls his high school chemistry knows that chlorine is an element, period, and that "organic" is an adjective that describes a compound that contains carbon...
...reliance on OPEC oil...
...Pinstriped Subversives I want to express my gratitude to Joseph Nocera for "The Merger Mongers," Phil Keisling for "Industrial America's Suicide Pact," as well as Lowell Dyson and Jonathan Alter...
...More natural gas produced here at home will replace oil in many uses and help further reduce oil imports...
...Simply put, Piasecki doesn't know what he is talking about...
...Your subscriber for years, this writer himself a veteran newspaperman, now a construction employer, born a Republican in 1899 and finally a red—a choice Alter helps confirm...
...Piasecki introduces us to "organic chlorine...
...In addition, a number of settlements recently approved by the commission will result in the payment of over $35 million in restitution to pipeline customers and an additional $1 million in civil penalties for violations of the NGPA...
...Decontrolling all gas prices while keeping take-or-pay would lead to even higher prices...
...According to nearly all accounts, the combination of a gas glut and take-or-pay contracts is forcing pipelines to purchase expensive gas while refusing delivery of available low-cost, price-controlled supplies...
...into useful substances such as carbon tetrachloride" is the greatest thing since sliced bread...
...Alter and his ilk decide to hire some out-ofwork writers by taking a 50 percent wage cut...
...To prove this point, I reported on the exacting inventories of the costs of dumping vs...
...Domestic gas prices vary widely...
...treatment performed by California officials, European leaders, and now American industry—represented by the Hazardous Waste Treatment Council...
...The $400-per-ton figure he cites for MWP, for example, applies to an early prototype...
...In arguing that the NGPA is working "better than expected," Mr...
...In my opinion, they represent a naive selection based on incomplete, incorrect assessment of them and of the problems...
...Although I felt it unnecessary to describe the entire MWP process, I thought it essential to emphasize the relative ease and stifled promise of this device...
...HARRY H. HARDY Washington, D.C...
...Crude oil decontrol has significantly weakened OPEC by reducing U.S...
...Cheap Gas" in January contained some errors of fact in addition to misquoting me...
...The book is intended to enable anyone to do what I now do for major papers—analyze campaign finance reports and determine who is behind the PACs behind the politicians...
...Contrary to Hardy's unsubstantiated assertion, decontrolling old gas will not reduce U.S...
...After all, all of us good neoliberal Democrats will surely, ultimately, all hang together...
Vol. 15 • March 1983 • No. 1
