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Big Oil Money Flowing

October 17, 1980
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HACKENSACK, N.J. — It drizzled at the gas station but not in front of the supermarket a few minutes later. Congressman Andrew Maguire, D-N.J., hardly noticed either weather pattern. He was busy handing out to motorists and consumers material on his congressional record and asking for their votes. Twice he pumped gas and talked politics…

Pulling the Plug on Competition

October 15, 1980
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Dennis Kucinich, former mayor of Cleveland, must feel vindicated. During his controversial tenure, which ended in 1979, he frequently charged that the powerful private electric utility, Cleveland Electrical Illuminating Co. (CEI), was trying to drive Muny Light, a city-owned retail competitor, out of business. The city’s attorneys filed a massive antitrust suit against CEI a…

Abuse of Power

October 8, 1980
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Members of the media have long been accustomed to confronting politicians with their past statements and asking for a present explanation. The same treatment is not accorded executives of large corporations. Politi­cians are chided for exaggerating or dissembling. Not so with corporate executives. Could it be that the latter do not engage in such practices?…

‘Incident’ Costly

September 20, 1980
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In the tradition of nuclear industry euphemisms, Carl Walske, president of the Atomic Industrial Forum, calls the Three Mile Island accident of March 1979 “a valuable learning experience.” He also has referred to it as an “incident” — a common corporate substitute for “accident.” Well, this “incident” will cost the nation’s con­sumers and taxpayers at…

Solar Goes to Mainstreet USA

September 19, 1980
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Anyone who thinks practical solar energy is too expensive or is “Buck Rogers stuff” is not keeping to date. All over America the do-it-yourself people discovering the sun and applying it to their homes. This approach brings the cost down dramatically when compared with oil, coal or nuclear energy. Around the country, community action groups…

Who’s Working for Who?

September 17, 1980
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The law never seems to phase Transportation Secretary Neil Gold­schmidt. Within weeks of taking the Cabinet post last year, he was off and running, telling city officials their federal aid applications would not be handled expeditiously if they supported anyone other than Jimmy Carter for president. Playing political reelection hardball with the taxpayers’ money happens…

Broken Field Running

September 6, 1980
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If he is anything, Jimmy Carter is one of the foremost political broken-field runners in modern American history. Just when you think his ineptitude has caught his foot in a bear trap, he scampers away a few feet. This is about all that can be said about his most recent corporate “revitalization” program. All it…

An Australian Problem, Too

August 30, 1980
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HOBART, TASMANIA — Even in this more distant and very beautiful Australian state, the looming issue is becoming (as it is throughout this country) the foreign multinational corporations. The aluminum industry and other companies want cheap hydropower. So they are supporting the damming of rivers in the spectacular wilderness of Southwest Tasmania. Conservationists, led by…

The Secretary of Sell-Out

August 27, 1980
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One of those little-publicized strug­gles, weighted with gravity for the safety of millions of Americans on the highway, occurred a few days ago on Capitol Hill. Secretary of Transportation Neil Goldschmidt was busy undercutting the valiant attempts of conservative Republi­can Senator John Warner to ensure that life-saving air bags would be available on cars starting…

Pesticide Use Questioned

August 16, 1980
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The state of Maine and the seven large paper companies that own 35 percent of its land took their annual run of the pesticide treadmill last month. As chemical insecticide use has increased, the pesticide treadmill has become a familiar phenomenon in forest and agricultural communities. In Maine the object of the poison is the…