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"Up to now our Government's approach to energy problems has been largely characterized by indifference, indecision and delay," complained Donald L. Bower, president of Chevron U.S.A. But, he added, "there are measures our nation can undertake to slow and later reverse its increasing dependency on foreign energy." He stressed the need for additional discoveries and the widespread application of methods, such as pumping solvent chemicals into depleted wells, to get more oil out of older fields. "By 1985 more than 40% of total domestic production must come from new discoveries or enhanced recovery projects." Bower was pessimistic about the outlook for domestic natural gas. By 1981, he thinks, falling natural-gas supplies will be capable of filling only about one-fifth of the nation's energy demand, v. almost one-third in the early 1970s.
As Bower sees it, the biggest roadblock to increasing production is Government price-control policy that "discourages the formation of the capital necessary to expand supplies, inhibits sensible planning and encourages wasteful consumption." Roadblock No. 2: Endless delays in the leasing of federal oil land, notably on the outer continental shelf, less than 5% of which has been let to oil explorers. Roadblock No. 3: The day-today uncertainty of Government regulation. State and federal rules are likely to change as often as every six months, making it virtually impossible to plan for long-term capital investments. Roadblock No. 4: Congressional threats to break up the oil companies. Though Bower predicted that pending divestiture bills will fail, he cautioned that such attacks distract the oil companies from the essential task of developing greater resources.
Edwin Phelps, president of Peabody Coal Co., said that last year the coal industry could have mined 60 million or 70 million tons more than the 660 million that it did produce. Phelps was confident that under the proper conditions, the industry can meet the President's goal of doubling coal production within ten years. "But," he cautioned, "it is going to take all the underground coal, all the surface-mined coal, all the coal in the East, the Midwest and the West."
"Unquestionably, coal and uranium must be the dominant fuels for electricity generation well into the next century," declared Clyde A. Lilly Jr., president of Birmingham, Ala.-based Southern Company Services, Inc. He predicted that electricity would become an ever more vital form of power. "The electric commuter car," he said, "is almost certain to play an important role in the future."
Like the other energy industries, public utilities are also being strangled by what Lilly termed "regulatory overkill." He pleaded for simplified procedures for the licensing of power-generating nuclear reactors. Because of myriad environmental and other requirements, it now takes up to eleven years to complete a U.S. nuclear power station. The Japanese do it in 3½.