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The immediate necessity is to set firm priorities for gasoline, diesel fuel and heating oil production, devise a more effective allocation system for distributing them, and enact a stand-by gas-rationing plan. Those steps will not increase overall supply, but they might calm the panic buying that is turning what should be a moderate shortage into a nightmare. Indeed, the nation had better get used to coping with shortages. The one in 1973-74 disappeared quickly after OPEC turned on the spigot following the end of the Arab oil embargo. The cartel seems unlikely to do so again, and even if it did, no one could trust an increase in output to last. Meanwhile, the threat of economic slowdown and runaway inflation in the non-Communist world gets stronger every day.
* By contrast, supplies of natural gas, which is also widely used for home heating, ran desperately short in recent winters because of an artificial pricing system, but they now appear to be ample.