Page 2, The Herald, Tueaday, May 22, 1979

, I

‘y
’

‘Americans,

shortage began simply.

‘Johnny Carson made a
‘Joke on the Tonight Show

a couple of years ago
about supplies of toilet
paper being tight. There
really was no shortage —
until Carson's joke.

In a matter of days,

.toilet paper became a

rare commodity,
believing
Carson was serious,
bought every roll of toilet
paper they could d get hold
of. Soon, lots of peo
had several we

_ Supply of tollet paper —
ba ‘stores had virtually

That phenomenon is
known as panic buying.
And many experts say It
is a major cause of the
current U.S. gasoline
crunch.

There is little question
that there actually la a
shortage of gasoline —
demand for the fuel has
been going up ata four-

percent annual pace, :

while oil companies,
compensaling for a
shortage of crude oll,
have reduced shipments
to dealers by about 10 per
cent.

But analysts say the

shortage should have
been easy to manage. The
lines which have ap-
peared in California and
elsewhere have, been due
not so much to the

. afew

PANIC BU YING’.
CAUSING SHOR TAGE! >.

NEW YORK (AP) —.
The great tollet paper

shortage itself as to

motorists’ perception that.
the aortage is worse than

it ac

“Tf you waite up in the
morning, turn on the TV
and seé a news story
about Jong gas ines,
you're going to think,
‘Wow, I batter go out and

buy some gas’,” said one.
”- buying two gallons each

Analysts say that what
happens ina panic-buying.
situation is that motorists:

oil industry executive.

start pulling up to gas
pumps as scon as the gas
gauge reaches the three-
quarter mark, instead of

waiting until it is down to-
_ one-quarter. *

Many ‘analysts say
- panic buying is tripped by
the first signs -of ‘tght’

gasoline supplies — news
that companies: are -cut-
ting shipments.to dealers
or that gas stations are

closing ‘Sundays, cutting .
houra or fenkting Bales to

‘top it oft”
: instead oft “fill it up,” ;

gall ona.
By saying ‘
motorists are setting off o
whole chaix of events that
analysts say can lead to
trouble.
The difference between
running sround with a

quarter-tank of gas and.

three-quarters is about 10
gallons. If all of the 134
million cars and trucks in
the U.S. made that
change,
gallons of gasoline would
shift from the distribution
system to gas tanks.

‘ every . state

1.34 billlon .

"recent": American
" putornobile Association:
check of 40 cars.coming .
into & Washington; D.C.,
gas station found only two
actually low on gas. The
yest were topping off..
- Meanwhile, it takes just:

“about as long to buy two

Ballons of gas as it does to
y 10; So five motorists

take about five times .aa
mitch. time as one
motorist purchasing ' 10.
gallons. That. - time ‘

* translates into lines. And

those lines, and news
reports of them, cause

. More people to, think ~

about topping off: .
. In other words,’ ‘pani

begets panic... --
_Eventually, the panic." .

buying. fever weara off, .
and supplies return to
something like normal,

‘analyats say. But no one

is sure when that will:

_ happen, though there are’

suggestions on “how to--
hasten it...
One ‘possibility - “ts. to

, replace maximum

purchase limits — which
analysts say’ encourage
panic
minkmum ~— " purchase
levels,

“T think one thing that °
should
require is a ‘minimum
purchase of $5," said .
Larry Goldstein of the
U.S. Petroleum Research
Foundation, “That . will .
force people to.keep from
topping their tanks."

buying — with

friends for life

la vie nous conceme

The Canadian

La Société canadienne
Red Cross Society dela Croix-Rouge

Don't be surprised to find a spider i in|
your morning newspaper. The spider.
is merely looking to see which of the

town’s merchants is
not advertising, He
will then go to that
store, spin his web
across the door and
lead a life of :
undisturbed _

peace!

TERRACE/ KITIMAT

DAILY HERALD

withhold gasoline —

7 WASHINGTON (AP) —

Oil company executives

. Genlet Monday that they are

€

withholding ‘garoline from

the U.S:. market to await

higher prices and blamed the

country’s gasoline squeeze

on, a lack of crude oil.
Carter "administration

spokesmen testifying before

‘a -cangressiongl committee
-blamed tight crnde oil

. Bupplies on unrest: In the

Middle East.
And White . House press

-secratary Jody Powell said

the U.S.. Congress is

primarily | responsible for the
current gasoline problems

‘and that President Carter is
“getting foo much of the

: ‘| blame. a

Deputy Energy Secretary
John O'Leary told a Senate
hearing that shortages may
be eased somewhat if Iran
increases. its oil production.
He said there is a’ chance

- Iran might export an ad-

: ditional -200,-000 to 300,000

* barrels a day to the United
States,

But such an increase,
‘O'Leary added, would only
make the U:S. ‘more
comfortable” in a time af

- continuing shortage."

' O'Leary and executives of
five major oll - companies

Another

WASHINGTON (AP) -
The, chairman of 8.
House «of "Representatives
inquiry -into the atomic
accident at the Three Mile
Island nuclear power plant |

. Pains lyania . said
Moviday “game type of
misha ely at any time

at, anoth
facility. -

Representative James
Weaver (Dem. Ore.) made
the assertion in presenting &
report’ by his special com-
mission ‘suggesting that
equipment and instrument
failure played a much
greater-role in the March 28
accident than operator
error.

Meanwhile, the Houge ap-
proved and sent to the White
House a measure giving

. broad powers to the com-

‘U.S. nuclear |

testified before a Senate
energy subcommittee
studying the present shor-

to;

Senators: told the officials
that they, like exasperated
motorists in gagoline station
lines, want an answer to the
question of whether gasoline
is being held back to bid up
the price.

“] don't know of any oil
being withheld for higher
prices,"said James DeNike,
a vice-president of Shell oil

0.

“T can’t answer that,”
O'Leary —_ said. He
acknowledged that some oil
is probably being held back
but said companies doing so
may be acting prudently to
maintain their inventories,
- O'Leary said he doesn’t
know of any easy ways for oil
companies to stretch their
tight supplies any further.
The problem is less crude cil
and a higher demand,
especially for gasoline, he
testified,

The chairman of the
energy committee, Senator
Henry Jackson (Dem.

Wash.), said this year’s —

shortage is a rerun of the
1973 Arab oil embargo. This
time, he said, the Middle
East ofl countries are
limiting production in order

to drive up the price. .
“There is no reasonable

limit to that in the short °

run,” Jackson said.

Shell's DeNike said his
firm could use another 1.5
million barrels of imported
oil daily to keep its refineries
running at capaci JW.
Price, vice-presi ent of
Chevron, testified his
company is “significantly
short" of the’ crade -oil it
needs,

Annon Card, a Texaco
vicepresident,. said wortd
crude oil shortages likely
will continue into the 1980s.

C.R. - Sitter, Exxon Co,
vicepresident, sald that
industrywide refinery
production would approach

last summer's levels, but °

still fall two or three per cent
short of the increased de-
mand for gasoline.

At the White House, Powell
criticized: what he called
apologists in Congress: who
he said have not accepted
responsibility for their votes
against Carter’s energy
proposals,

“If the Congress had
passed the proposals the
president sent up in 1977, we
would be significantly better
off in terms of gaa supplies
this summer,” he said.

mishap is likely

mission named by President
‘Carter to investigate the
nuclear accident.

The measure,
unanimously,
‘commission the power to
‘ subpoena ‘and put ‘witnesses

passed

under oath and to inspect

certain records.

Commission members last
week suspended hearings
into the accident until it had
obtained. the power. The
Senate passed the bill
Frida

“Such an accident not only
could happen again but it is
likely to at any time,"
“Weaver tald members of a
House og terior sub-
commit

7 rhe Mile Island has

gives the |

proved __ the extreme
vulnerability of nuclear
power.”’

Thecommissien concluded
in its report that control
room operators were unable
to halt the worst U.S, nuclear
accident because their in-
struments gave them false
or misleading information.

‘| saw no operator: error

not closely related to design :

or equipment = error,”
Weaver said.

“Operators and engineers:
involved from the start of the
accident repeatedly told the
task force (his commission)
they did not know the extent
of damage — the degree of
serious danger — until one or
two days after”

~ | Executives deny. they { NEWS-IN BRIEF

WASHINGTON (AP) —
The city of Lancaster, Pa.,
asked. a federal court
Monday to bar the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission
(NRC) from permitting
discharge of radioactive
waste water from the Three
Mile Island reactor into the
Susquehanna River.

The suit, naming the NRC
as a defendant, was filed by
the City af Lancaster
Authority in U.S, district
court,

‘The building housing
reactor No, 2 at Three Mile

_ Island has been flooded with

hundreds of thousands of
gallons of radioactive water
since an accident’ March 28
severely damaged | the
reactor core.

The suit asks the court “to
preliminarily and per-
manently enjoin’ the NAC

from allowing ‘construction :

or operation of any decon-
tamination equipment or
piping that would discharge
the radioactive water into
the Susquehanna.

Lancaster is about 48 kilo-
metres from the reactor site.

The ‘city asks the in-
junction until the com-
mission prepares an en-
vironmental impact state-
ment “covering all the plans
todecontaminate the reactor
No. 2 building at Three Mile
Island and dispose of the
radioactive wastewater.
contained therein.”

The suit said the NRC ap-
proved last month the plan to
decontaminate 250,000

gallons of radioactive waste ;

water currently stored in the
reactor’s auxiliary building.

Fail to agree

LONDON (AP) —- US.
State Secretary Cyrus Vance
and British Foreign
Secretary Lord Carrington
met for nearly six hours
Monday on a range of in-
ternational issues but appar-
ently failed ta agree on the
touchy issue of a new Anglo-
American strategy on

’ Rhodesia.

5 peaking ta reporters
outside the foreign office,
Carrington described his
first meeting with a senior

American official since the

Conservative government

gained power in the British ,

general election May J a8
“not only very agreeable,
but very positive.”

Vanee avoided direct
reference to Rhodesia at the
news conference. He said
European issues, the Middle
East, Asian and Caribbean
problems were discussed,
adding that ‘some African

problems’’ were touched ©

upon,

An informed source said
no conclusions were reached
by either side on the
Rhodesian question.

His health is failing —

1.0S ANGELES (AP) — A
lawyer for Johnny
Weissmuller’s. wife- said

Monday it's the-health of the

74-year-old former Tarzan
movie star that is failing —
not his mind — and that’s
why Weismuller is being
transferred ‘to a con-
valescent home. ~

Albert Coombes disputed
statements by Jack Staggs of
the Motion Picture and
Country Hospital,
Weissmuller is staying.
Staggs had indicated the
actor is suffering from

where’

“psychological problems."

“The move was only
necessitated by fear that
medically he might need 24-
hour care,"’ Coombes said.
“The problem is that Johnny
has several medical con-
ditions that could endanger
his life, were he to be unat-
tended for a period of time.

“Our fear was that if he
just went wandering off
without a nurse with him, he
could get into a situation
where’ he might be in

danger.”

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