ENERGY: Making Everybody Unhappy

The energy bill signed into law by President Ford last week represented a full year's effort on the part of Congress, but it pleased almost nobody. Liberals conceded that while it will avert a sudden sharp rise in heating-oil and gasoline prices, it also virtually guarantees that Americans will go on using energy profligately. As for conservatives, the Wall Street Journal summed up their feelings by branding the bill a "monument to the Orwellian leviathan"; nearly every section "involves an infringement of individual rights or property rights." The controversial bill is politically palatable, but it will leave the nation far...

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