January 17, 1973
Page 1260
THE OIL CRISIS
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the fuel oil situation in New England is growing worse, and the administration still has made no response. If Maine and New England are to be spared the crisis which has affected the Midwest, the President must act immediately to increase needed supplies of home-heating oil.
Last week, the U.S. Office of Emergency Preparedness in Boston was told flatly by oil dealers that unless immediate action was taken there would be a full-blown crisis in February. The response from OEP spokesmen in Washington was, "We feel that up in the New England area they're getting along fairly well."
New Englanders are fed up with this kind of answer. There is no reason for further delay. There are no more excuses for inaction. As each day goes by, evidence mounts that the oil crisis we predicted has arrived.
The fact of the matter is that President Nixon has the power to end this crisis if he wants to. He need not wait for congressional authorization. He does not need to spend a single penny of the taxpayers' money. In a single stroke he can abolish the import restrictions which have created this crisis, and allow oil distributors to seek supplies from every available source. Are the pocketbooks of a few rich oilmen more important than the comfort, safety, and peace of mind of hundreds of thousands of American families?
The President can – indeed, he must – act at once. In the past few days, my office has received dozens of phone calls from Maine indicating that the major distributors are rationing oil to their wholesale customers, that supplies are limited, and that some dealers have been cut off completely until February 1.
Until now, retail customers have not been affected. But do we have to wait for the first home or the first hospital to run out of oil? For years, New Englanders have had to come to the President, hat in hand, to ask, "Please, Mr. Nixon, let us heat our homes, let us keep our children warm, let us keep our schools and factories open."
For years, we have sought a sensible oil policy, but the President has either ignored our pleas or responded with halfway measures.
The message does not seem to be getting through.
We are not asking any longer. We demand that the President end this system which is discriminatory and irresponsible.