In the Public Interest

WASHINGTON–If it all sounds bizarre, it nevertheless is happening up and down big business. Consider the following: Gas and electric utilities who for a number of months were telling customers to conserve gas and electricity are now demanding higher rates because customers responded and reduced demand. These utilities have consumers coming and going because it…

WASHINGTON–Now that the people are accurately telling members of Congress that the present energy shortage was orchestrated by the oil industry and condoned by the big businessmen running the government, what will Congress do about it? Here is a suggested program which Senators and Representatives could support that would go a long way toward providing…

WASHINGTON–Officials of the giant New York Telephone Company are dumbfounded. They obtained a 15 percent increase in home telephone rates early last mont but the expected avalanche of consumer complaints never materialized. They had expected this torrent of outrage because when the rate increase was proposed in late 1972 there were, as for previous rate…

WASHINGTON–Picture the scene: Harsh arguments and fights are breaking out at congested gas stations and between shivering tenants and landlords around the country. Workers are losing their jobs. Small businesses, including the independent gas stations who provide about the only retail competition to the big companies, are being severely squeezed or put out of business.…

Washington–An industry just isn’t with it these days if it cannot announce a “shortage.” Without a “shortage” there is no corporate chic. For how else can a self-respecting corporation, working with its confreres and trade association, get higher prices, weaken pollution standards, loosen antitrust constraints, drive small business out of business and demand even more…

WASHINGTON–Those political antennae known as Senators and Representatives are mostly back home in their districts presumably sounding out the voters for their opinions. Until Congress reconvenes on January 21, the members of this leaderless branch of government will be sampling public opinion. Here are a few questions to put to your Congressional representative if you…

WASHINGTON–If there is anything that can match the corruption of the Nixon Administration, it is the incompetence and captivity to the big oil companies that have characterized its mishandling of the energy problem. Quite apart from its Congressionally documented refusal to stand up to big oil in past years and months, the White House is…

WASHINGTON–When Richard Nixon was promoting the safety of nuclear power plants before the Associated Press editors last month, he asserted reassuringly that his San Clemente residence was only a few miles from one such nuclear facility. What he didn’t tell the editors is that this plant at San Onofre, California, had closed down for several…

One of the benefits of the present short term energy shortfall is the attention it throws on the enormous waste of energy by suppos­edly cost-conscious industri­al and commercial firms. Many corporate executives will have to explain why and how they dissipated corporate resources over the years while holding out to shareholders and con­sumers an image…

WASHINGTON–President Nixon’s statement on the energy situation placed far more burdens on consumers than on industry. Together with his legislative proposals on the energy problem., the message adds up to a windfall for booming corporate profits and a shortfall for the consumer’s health and pocketbook. To start with, one would never learn from the President’s…