The Politics of Energy

...Ford also proposed an across-the-board policy that would raise gasoline prices only 1215 cents a gallon, and other prices by somewhat lower amounts...

...In such an environment, any effort to bring about forceful energy legislation was doomed from the start...

...After almost 25 years as a Michigan Representative, Ford correctly assessed the mood on Capitol Hill...

...Ford is in this no-win position because the consumer has yet to understand what the shouting is all about...

...chief of the Senate's special energy committee...

...By deciding to press the issue, he has opened himself to blame for higher prices in the midst of inflation...

...Motels in Florida and California feared a loss of tourists, as did the Las Vegas hotel owners...

...Washington-USA THE POLITICS OF ENERGY BY STEPHEN NORDLINGER Washington Political commentators usually portray the President as the official who reconciles conflicting interests in framing national policy...

...At the time, a leading Democrat told Ford privately: "If the goal of your import tariff was to get the mule's attention, well, you got the mule's attention...

...That was in early March...

...But its efforts have been a futile exercise...

...Almost 18 months ago, in the midst of the growing fuel crisis-with schools short of natural gas, farmers lacking propane and motorists facing long gasoline lines-the House Commerce Committee wrestled for three weeks with the first major energy bill and produced an empty shell...

...Although a small concession, it set the pattern for the panel's deliberations, and the real hole was driven into the bill by the nation's auto makers, aided by Leonard Woodcock of the United Auto Workers...

...This may shift as the coming campaign dramatizes the problem, but at the moment Ford is gaining little or nothing for his trouble...

...This should hardly have come as a surprise...

...John Sawhill, before his forced resignation as Energy Administrator, remarked that he never realized the power and diversity of the nation's special interests until he felt their pressure at meeting after meeting...

...For the majority of Americans seem to believe, to quote Representative Andrew Maguire (D.-N.J...

...The same heat was applied to the even more vulnerable U.S...

...It did little good...

...The President has failed to convince people that sacrifice, a change in their way of life, is needed...

...Congress, by contrast, is often pictured as so unruly a mass that nothing less than a strong hand at the wringer can grind out any sort of coordinated program...

...agreed by a wide margin to exempt pleasure-craft from an excise tax designed to discourage gasoline consumption...

...If we can't come up with something then, we won't be able to come up with anything...

...In spite of the public's perception of Congress as an undisciplined, weak captive of special interests, the Democrats will likely be able to convince the electorate that they stymied a costly and unnecessary spiraling of fuel prices the nation could ill afford...

...Detroit had already scored a few points at the White House last winter when the President, worried about slumping car sales, agreed to a merely voluntary program to improve auto-fuel efficiency 40 per cent by 1980...

...Energy officials told me that his entire program has been predicated on a strongly held belief that Congress would never approve an increase in gasoline taxes on the order of 30-40 cents a gallon, the level believed necessary to reduce demand sufficiently...

...Packed in the audience for the all-day sessions were lobbyists calling the signals...

...He is the spokesman for the common good...

...And there now appears to be no chance whatsoever that a stiff gasoline tax will be approved to stem the increase in oil imports over the next few years...

...We made a blunder in not letting Ford have his way," said one key Congressman...

...Nonetheless, the failure of Congress to develop a strong alternative to the Ford program is setting the stage for a major political clash in the 1976 election...

...These descriptions are to a large extent borne out in the current debate over energy policy...

...President Nixon used to say that he represented the national welfare, and Congress only petty, special interests...

...The Senate Commerce Committee recently endorsed a highly controversial bill to lift some controls from natural gas prices...

...Whatever one's feelings about him, his comment contained a grain of truth...

...A recent national and regional poll commissioned by the White House tells the story...

...Finally, on May 20, the House Democratic leadership simply postponed a vote on it...

...And what about schools, farms, hospitals and their priority needs...

...In some ways Congress has tentatively and half-heartedly recognized the basic thrust of the Ford strategy...

...Despite the pressures of the Arab embargo, despite the fact that the public was learning the oil companies dominated our energy programs, despite the lack of reliable independent information on fuel reserves and the absence of an apparatus to develop or administer a Federal policy, Congress proved unable to fill the governmental vacuum...

...Ironically, even though Ford has so far put together the one comprehensive program to reduce imports, he is vulnerable...

...that "neither Ford nor the oil companies are playing it straight with the people...

...When that strong hand is missing, as at present, only a firm sense of what is required-and of survival-can produce important legislation...

...On the other hand, should the House and Senate decide to block the President, he may still come out the loser...

...In the midst of the energy crisis of 1973-74, the inherent stresses of the legislative branch thwarted any attempt to pass a tough bill to curb fuel consumption...

...So did the boating interests...

...Stephen Nordlinger is a Washington reporter for the Baltimore Sun...

...The chief legislation moved slowly through Congress, and was bled by the special interests...

...the remaining controls on oil prices could be removed over the next few years as well...

...Over recent years only one significant enactment of this sort could fairly be labeled "made on Capitol Hill"-the measure to lower the voting age to 18...

...By this maneuver, Congress assumed responsibility for developing a new plan...

...Give us 60 days and we will come up with an energy program," said Senator John O. Pastore (D.-R.I...

...Only now, nearly five months later, are the Democratic leaders coming to recognize they overestimated their ability to produce an alternative to the Ford proposals that could be passed...

...The second stab at producing an energy program brought forth what came to be described by Democrats and Republicans alike as a marshmallow...

...Inflation and unemployment were top concerns, and only 3 per cent put energy in the first rank of national issues...

...If Congress was unable to act then, in the face of an embargo and a dramatic rise in prices, there was, of course, no prospect of its doing so in round two, which began early this year when President Ford submitted his comprehensive energy program...

...After spending two years watching both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue try to devise a plan to conserve fuel and develop new sources of supply, I have concluded that an institutional-apart from a partisan-conflict inhibits any action...

...Prices are up, to be sure, but the threat to the country's security seems dim indeed...

...Congress...

...Congress has practically never demonstrated an ability to initiate laws that would have a profound impact on the political and economic life of the nation...

...The snowmobile makers objected to fuel cutbacks...

...Congressmen can be narrow, shortsighted and stubborn, especially if some sacrifice is being demanded of their constituents...

...Yet congress failed to come up with anything better...

...Energy crisis...

...and lobbyists abound on Capitol Hill ready to exploit the Representatives' instinct for self-preservation...

...Nixon, ensnared by Watergate, offered virtually no guidance, and without customary White House leadership, Congress drifted...

...Instead of taking this course, however, the Democratic leaders agreed to let stand the President's veto of the bill that prevented him from raising tariffs for 90 days, while the White House, in turn, delayed imposing the tariff as a gesture of cooperation...

...Then he could assume the responsibility...

...The builders of small planes in Wichita wanted an assured supply of jet fuel...

...What energy crisis...

...Moreover, should another embargo occur, all of government would be the target of blame-the White House and Capitol Hill...

...That is why he opted for a broad-ranging price program whose impact would be felt across the economy...

...The first sign of trouble for the Democrats' energy plan developed two months ago when the House Ways and Means Committee, under Al Ullman (D.-Ore...

...Even if the Republicans were in charge on Capitol Hill, there is no reason to believe cooperation would be forthcoming, and control by the Democrats makes it all but impossible...

...We've got to start being more political on these things...