CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE

May 8, 1969

Page 11760

SENATOR HART'S STUDY OF OIL IMPORT QUOTAS

Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, it is accepted in the Senate that the senior Senator from Michigan (Mr. HART) will do an outstanding job with any matter he undertakes. His talent for thoroughness -- and fairness -- is perhaps most evident in his role as chairman of the Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee. The issues there are always complex and controversial, but Senator HART makes understanding them much easier for the rest of us.

Recently, under Mr. HART's direction, the subcommittee took on one of its toughest assignments -- an evaluation of the effect that Government's role in the oil marketplace has had on the American consumer.

The Senate should note that the New York Times, in an editorial of March 28, 1969, points out that even in this most complex area Mr. HART has performed up to his usual standards. To quote the editorial, the first set of these hearings were "brilliant."

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the editorial be inserted at this point in the RECORD. And I call my colleagues' attention to the fact that these hearings will resume later this month.

There being no objection, the editorial was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

[From the New York Times. Apr. 28, 1969]

NEW THEATER OF THE ABSURD

Senator Russell B. Long of Louisiana faithfully serves his petroleum constituency; so faithfully, in fact, that he recently brought the theater of the absurd to the floor of the Senate in a bizarre defense of the mandatory oil import quotas.

According to the argument tirelessly repeated by the oil interests, the mandatory import quotas were imposed in order to promote the "national defense," not to keep domestic prices above world levels at the expense of American consumers. Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin punctured that oleaginous myth by pointing out that ample supplies are available from Canada in the event of an emergency. There ensued the following colloquy:

"Mr. LONG.... How does the Senator know whether a war would not break out between the United States and Canada? . . . That could happen. Has the Senator ever heard of the War of 1812?

"Mr. PROXMIRE. Is the Senator from Louisiana really serious about that?

"Mr. LONG. It is not inconceivable.

"Mr. PROXMIRE. Canada and the United States would engage in a prolonged war that could hold up our ability to produce oil in this country?

"Mr. LONG. It is entirely conceivable to the Senator from Louisiana."

From that Mr. Long went on to posit the possibility of a prolonged, non-nuclear war between Russia and the United States in which domestic oil would again play a pivotal role. All this brave voyaging in the nightmare world of foreign policy helped divert attention from the hard fact that oil import quotas are costing the American consumers $5 to $7 billion a year in artificially high prices on petroleum products.

Senator Philip A. Hart of Michigan, chairman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, provided brilliant documentation of the case against the import quotas in a recent series of hearings.

Independent experts were virtually unanimous in characterizing the import quotas as an unnecessary burden upon consumers and a deterrent to efficiency and long-run profitability in the oil industry.

Domestic interests will have an opportunity to reply at future hearings. Perhaps they can then answer a question to which Senator Long, in his thespian role, did not address himself. If vast domestic reserves of crude oil are essential to the national security, why not take effective action to conserve them by removing the quotas on imports?