The Michigan Daily
Vol. LXXXV, No. 47-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Wednesday, July 23, 1975 Ten Cents Twelve Pages
House defeats Ford's oil price plan
W A S H I N G T 0 N (A') - President continue the compromise talks, and one
Ford's plan to end domestic oil price b ill administration source predicted a com-
controls was shotdown yesterday by the rse exeC promise would be fashioned.
House, but definite moves began toward' i Iop ro m is Ford himself invited congressional
a. compromise energy program. leaders to a meeting aboard the resi-
Rep. Jim Wright (D-Tex.), head of White House officigls said the price A White House source said, mean- dential yacht Sequoia last night, and a
the House Democrats' task force to de- of gasoline at the pump would have while, that a compromise also might in- House group was coming to the White
velop a party policy on energy, offered gone .up by about seven cents a gallon volve extending the time for decontrol House to discuss Turkish aid at a break-
an amendment to legislation now before by the end of 1977 under Ford's reject- to perhaps three years instead of the fast today.
mhe Hlouse which would lay the ground-
work for a tax on U. S. crude oil produc-
tion.
ADMINISTRATION officials have been
working with congressional energy lead-
ers for several-months in an attempt to
break the stalemate over what to do
about the nation's energy problems.
The compromise was offered only a
few hours after the House, by a 262-167
vote, killed Ford's plan to remove do-
mestic oil price controls.
Committee
sees natural
gas shortage
WASIINGTON (P)-A s h o r t a g e of
ratural gas next winter could endanger
the nation's economic health and secur-
ity, with cutbacks in gas service taking
on the proportiors of a national emer-
gency, a Hotse committee report says.
The shortage cotld bring about cur-
teilments of gas service to commercial,
indostrial and, for the first time, resi-
, 'ntial users, -cording to the report.
"THE BICENTENNIAL months of No-
vember 1975 to April 1976 may very well
conjure up realistic visions of Washing-
too's discomfort at Valley Forge," it
said.
The report, scheduled to be released
S nday, was approved yesterday by the
H o u s e Government Operations Com-
mittee.
The committee's subcommittee on con-
servation, energy and natural resources
prepared the report after a series of
hearings.
THE DOCUMENT says that natural
gas-is used by 140 million Americans and
more than one-half of the nation's indus-
tries, yet federal agencies have failed to
prepare for the predicted shortage.
ed. gradual decontrol plan, which was
two-and-a-half years Ford suggested and
designed to promote fuel conservation provisions similar to Wright's. BOTH were logical opportunities for
and provide incentive for oil companies. Federal Energy Administrator Frank energy compromise talk.
But critics put the cost increase as high Zarb met for more than an hour late Wright said his tax proposal would be
at 15 cents a gallon. yesteday with several senators, led by coupled with some redistribution of oil-
Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield, to company receipts to compensate con-
WRIGHT'S amendment to the proposed discuss the possibility of compromise. sumers.
Energy Conservation and Oil Policy Act Ways and Means Committee Chair-
would leave it up to the House Ways "NO OFFER was put on the table," man Al Ullman, (D-Ore.), said, "I
and Means Committee to write a tax Zarb said later. "We just looked at all feel strongly that if we have a wind-
of some kind on domestic production, to the positions. We didn't talk about any fall profits tax there should be provi-
be plowed back into new research and precise offer at all." sions to compensate consumers. The
development of domestic fuel sources. White House sources said Zarb would amendment does satisfy me."
AP Photo
-Death trap
At least two people were killed and 15 others injured near Hamburg, West Germany, yesterday when a freight train
collided with a commuter train. Some of the wrecked cars are shown here soon after the crash.
OPPOSITION STAGES WALKOUT
Upper House backs Gandhi
NEW DELHI, India ( )--Opposition legislators walked
out of the upper house of the Indian parliament yesterday
after it overwhelmingly approved Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi's emergency powers.
"'We are satisfied that no useful purpose will be served
by our taking part in the further proceedings of this
session of parliament, for it, is clearly in no position to
discharge the functions of a free and -democratic parlia-
ment," Socialist leader N.G. Goray announced.
WHEN HE finished reading his statement on behalf of
all political parties except the ruling Congress and its
Communist supporters, the opposition left the chamber,
protesting Gandhi's arrests of their leaders and imposi-
tion of news censorship. 32 members left the upper house.
The wallout, which heralded an opposition boycott of"
the remaining days of this week's parliament session,
meant that the 240-member upper house would be left with
only the 130 members of the prime minister's Congress
party, 11 Communists and a few independents.
Goray said later that the opposition parties planned a
similar walkout in the lower house after that chamber
gives its expected approval of the emergency today.
THE OPPOSITION boycott of parliament represented a
setback to the government's efforts to-portray this week's
session as a normal legislative sitting despite the jailing
of about 20 members from both houses, including the
leaders of the non-Communist parties.
With solid support from. Congress party members and
Communists and with most opposition parliamentarians
absent, the emergency legislation passed the upper house
136-33.
See UPPER, Page 7