Dim Lights, Cold Rooms: Energy Crisis?

If you're keeping a list, you can add another item to the tally of emergencies for the seventies. In his televised address Wednesday night, President Nixon pronounced the shortage of fuel supplies to be an "official crisis."

Nixon said no American will have to suffer because of the energy crisis. But while we suffer through all the other crises of this government, we will have to make some sacrifices due to the lack of oil.

Perhaps the most alarming sacrifice Nixon asked for is the suspension of environmental standards so more coal and high-sulfur oil can be burned. Conservationists responded to the Nixon request with regret and resignation. If there is indeed a crisis, there seems to be no way out of at least a temporary reduction in environmental guidelines for energy production.

Two other sacrifices Nixon requested will hit home with a more immediate impact. Nixon proposed lowering the speed-limit on all federal highways to 50-miles per hour, and he asked home owners to lower their thermostats by six degrees. If Nixon has his way industry will be turning its thermostats down ten degrees.

American heating oil supplies are currently 15 per cent below normal levels. During his speech Nixon blamed the low levels on reduced production of oil by the Arab states and on Arab embargos on shipments to the United States. Nixon proposed self-sufficiency in fuel production by 1980 as part of a long-range remedy.

Richard Wilson, professor of Physics and an expert in the field, called the 1980 goal too optimistic.

As was the case with Nixon's military alert two weeks ago, there is some doubt whether things are as bad as Nixon makes them seem. Marc J. Roberts, associate professor of Economics. said he objected to the term crisis. "Calling the present situation a crisis will make it easier for oil companies to raise their prices," Roberts said.