(4 of 10)
To map out a program despite these difficulties, Schlesinger has holed himself up in a bright, pleasant White House suite only a 30-second walk from the Oval Office. There he is surrounded by charts showing excessive U.S. use of energy (Americans burn approximately twice as much fuel per person as West Germans, who have roughly comparable living standards), reports and endless position papers from his staff. The first thing he did when he moved in was to recruit a dozen eager, freewheeling young people, who are unintimidated by their awesome job or their boss, whom they call simply Jim. Schlesinger hired them in his typically low-key way. Often it was just a telephone call: "How quickly can you get over here?" George Hall made it so quickly that he has not yet had time to turn in his ID card and parking permit at the Pentagon, where he was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. "I have never tried to drag a retinue around with me," says Schlesinger. "I think they should be more interested in their work than in following me around."
"Organized chaos" is the way an aide describes Schlesinger's managerial technique. His aim: to make his staff think, question, argue, analyze. Says one Schlesinger aide: "He is really a seminar leader." He likes to use the sessions to test ideas, and he throws out a lot. "We are really not sure which ones he is serious about," concludes an assistant. Even after he has reached a decision, Schlesinger is likely to end the session on a probing note. "If you think about this some more and decide it's crazy, come back," he will say.
It is exhilarating but wearying work. Schlesinger's people regularly put in twelve-to 14-hour days—like the boss. Late one recent evening, a reporter happened to meet Energy Staffer Dave Freeman in the Executive Office Building's deserted hall. "Jimmy says you can go home now," cracked the newsman. "Yeah," replied Freeman wearily, "but Jim didn't."
When completed, the program is expected to run some 64 pages. Until Carter himself presents it to Congress, Schlesinger prudently refuses to discuss specifics, though he does say that "there is going to be nothing novel in this comprehensive energy plan." Except, of course, that the nation finally will have, for better or worse, a comprehensive plan, focused on what Washington is calling "the two Cs"—conservation and coal.
The aim is to curtail waste of energy and tap the nation's coal reserves so that the U.S. can stretch out oil and gas supplies until past the turn of the century, when new sources of energy, such as fusion, geothermal and solar power, will be coming on-stream in a significant way. Though it is still subject to change, here is how the Administration's new energy program now looks:
CONSERVATION
According to cost-effectiveness studies by Schlesinger's staff, it costs only a tenth as much to save energy as to produce it. Further, the U.S., which makes far less efficient use of energy than almost any other industrialized country, has a lot of power to save. The Administration's goal: to reduce by one-third the annual growth of total energy consumption and cut foreign oil imports by roughly half, to 5 million bbl. per day by 1985.