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Actually, both Carter's language and statistics seriously distorted the situation. When he spoke of an "annual income" of $100 billion or $150 billion, it sounded as if he was talking about profits; actually, the figures refer to gross revenues. Further, the $18 billion figure that he cited for the companies' revenues at the wellhead was in terms of 1973 dollars. But the $100 billion and $150 billion figures were in inflated 1985 dollars. In terms of 1973 dollars, the comparable three figures would be $18 billion, $50 billion and $81 billion. That still represents a huge revenue jump for the companies but not as huge as Carter indicated—and, of course, a far larger volume is involved. His gas figures also unfairly compared 1973 dollars with 1985 dollars. Carter figured the average price of all gas at 23¢ per 1,000 cu. ft. in 1973 and projected the price of new gas, if totally unregulated, at $3.63 by 1985. In 1973 dollars, however, that figure would be $1.77, an eightfold rather than a fifteenfold increase.
The oil and gas executives who chose to reply to the President did so mainly in generalities, chiding Carter for the tone of his attack. Standard Oil of Indiana Chairman John Swearingen termed it "an emotional appeal to defend a tax program that is not defensible." He also claimed that Carter's package includes "the largest peacetime tax increase ever imposed on our citizens, and none of it would be used to increase the production of domestic energy." That familiar oil-company complaint ignores the Carter proposal for offsetting the tax impact on individuals through rebates.
The smaller gas producers sounded just as resentful. A.V. Jones Jr., president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, protested that for Carter "to single out the oil industry as if it were the lone influence that has brought his program into difficulty is unfair, unwarranted and unfortunate." George H. Lawrence, president of the American Gas Association, said the President's "highly emotional language" was "inflaming public opinion" but did nothing to provide "the production incentives so flagrantly lacking in the Administration energy plan." The Independent Gas Producers' Robert A. Hefner III, who served last year as chairman of an Oil and Gas Men for Carter campaign committee, said ruefully, "I made a big mistake."