A
OPINION
Page 4
Friday, April 13, 1984
The Michigan Daily'
J
Hart would wean
U.S.
off
foreign oil
By Dave Kopel
As the Democrats move into the
second half of the nomination contest,
the voters will be examining the can-
didates with increasing attention and
sophistication. The focus will shift from
slogans and "momentum" to issues and
leadership. While Gary Hart and
Walter Mondale have made iiportant
differences, in few areas is the contrast
as striking as in energy policy. Hart
favors a stand-by oil import fee; Mon-
dale opposes it. Hart would never send
American ground troops into combat in
the Persian Gulf; Mondale would. Hart
has proposed a detailed energy
program; while offering no alternative
policy, Mondale has bitterly attacked
Hart's.
Ever since his election to the Senate
in 1974, Gary Hart has been distressed
about American dependence on Arab
oil. Although the current recession has
reduced demand for oil, we still import
twice as much oil as was cut off by the
1979 Iranian revolution, and nearly as
much as was cut off in the 1973 oil em-
bargo.
OIL IMPORTS have had a
devastating effect on our economy. The
1500 percent oil price increase in the last
decade caused about one-third of that
decade's record inflation. Each year,
our foreign oil bill amounts to more
than the, total net assets of IBM,
General Motors, Ford, and General
Electric combined. Capital that could
be productively invested in America
instead goes into Saudi Arabian bank
accounts.
Our addiction to imported oil ties our
fate to that of the Persian Gulf regimes.
Not only are the Gulf states un-
democratic, they are unstable. Their
huge populations of migrant workers,
along with the tensions caused by rapid
modernization, make the Gulf states
extremely vulnerable to revolution. As
a pragmatic geopolitical decision-
maker, America must make sure that its
security is not dependent on the health
of the Gulf sheikdoms. As long as we in-
ject foreign oil into our veins, our
foreign policy will have to appease and
protect OPEC oil ministers.
Hart has proclaimed that he
will never send Americanground
troops into combat in the Gulf.
Claiming that America and its allies
need the oil, Mondale has lashed out at
Hart's stand.
MOST MILITARY experts agree that
the Carter-Mondale "Rapid
Deployment Force" could not possibly
prevail against determined opposition
in the Gulf. Unless we massively in-
creased the current size of the force,
our troops would simply be over-
whelmed by vastly greater numbers of
Iranian or Soviet troops. Moreover,
with supply lines stretching half-way
around the world, American troops
would be in a nearly impossible
position.
And even if we somehow gained con-
trol of the oil wells, we still would have
no oil. Terrorist attacks could easily
destroy the region's few refineries,
which take half a year to rebuild; and
Soviet submarines or Iranian planes
would sink the super-tankers.
If the Europeans really do want to
fight for the oil, Hart believes, they
should send the ground combat troops,
while America provides air and sea
support.
BUT A FAR BETTER solution is to
wean the West away from its dangerous
addiction to foreign oil. Hart's plan for
energy independence has three prongs:
discouraging imports, encouraging
conservation, and fostering domestic
energy production.
The most controversial of Hart's
proposals has been his "Security Fee"
on imported oil. If oil imports began to
rise, President Hart would impose a
steadily increasing tax on imported oil,
up to a maximum of 10 dollars a barrel.
All revenue from the tax would be
rebated to lower-income people. As
opinion polls.
Protecting America and the West
against future oil shocks also means
making a serious effort to fill the
strategic petroleum reserve. The
current oil surplus gives us the oppor-
tunity to fill the reserve quickly, at
prices that will probably never be this
low again; yet in deference to Saudi
Arabian requests, President Reagan
has made only half-hearted efforts to
fill the reserve.
WHILE HART and Mondale differ
sharply on the role of the American
military in the Persian Gulf, they do
agree that conservation is an essential
'As a pragmatic geopolitical decision-
maker, America must make sure that its
security is not dependent on the health of
the Gulf sheikdoms.'
conservation improvements; the loans
would be paid back from the money the
borrowers saved on energy costs. To
help all home-owners reduce energy
use,. Hart would set up an "Energy Ef-
ficiency Extension Service," which
would provide conservation infor-
mation. And by requiring greater use of
energy-efficiency rating and labeling,
Hart would give consumers the data
they need to cut energy consumption.
Some people, of course, simply can-
not afford today's high electricity
prices, even with all the weatherization
and consumer information help in the
world. For this reason, Hart has
proposed nation-wide "Lifeline Utility
Rates," to guarantee that no-one will go
without electricity.
BY LETTING the market determine
overall energy prices, and providing
subsidized energy only to the needy,
Hart's policy represents a sharp break
from older Democratic energy policy.
The older approach, aiming to keep
prices low for the poor, put price con-
trols on the entire market; instead of
using the market to encourage conser-
vation, that policy artificially en-
couraged consumption.
No successful energy policy can
ignore development of domestic energy
sources. One thing that the government
does well, which the commercial
market often neglects, is research.
Hart favors increased funding (above
both the Reagan and Carter-Mondale
levels) for basic research in solar,
geothermal, wind, and methane
energy, as well as incleaner methods of
coal burning. While Hart would
eliminate the Clinch RivertBreeder
Reactor and current subsidies for
commercial nuclear power, he does?
favor some funding for nuclear resear,
ch. In all energy fields, the governmert,
would concentrate on basic research,
leaving commercial applications to the;
free market.
Increasing domestic energy producp
tion also means stimulating exploration
for new oil. The current windfall profits.
tax (a Carter-Mondale creation) does
just the opposite. Before Carter took of-
fice, prices for domestic oil were rigidly
controlled; Carter removed those cofin
trols, and simultaneously imposed a
large tax on the profits. from all
domestic oil. The tax was the same for
oil discovered in 1957 as it was for oil
discovered in 1984. Hart would greately,
increase the tax on "old oil" (oil
discovered before decontrol), but would
cut the tax on "new oil," to provide a
greater incentive to explore for and drill
new oil fields.
The gigantic oil companies would loser
under the Hart plan, since they owns
mostly old oil; their exploration efforts:
lately seem limited to buying other oil
companies. (Incidentally, Hart would.
eliminate the tax deduction companies,
get for the money they borrow for.
mergers.) The beneficiaries of the Hart
tax revision would be smaller, indepen-t
dent oil producers, whose income;
comes mostly from new oil.
Breaking our foreign oil habit will not
be easy, but it is essential. If America
chooses leaders who frantically resist
every change in the status quo, our
decline will continue. But with leaders
like Gary Hart, we can regain our
greatness and independence.
Kopel is a second year law student.
4
Mondale points out, the fee would, in
the short run,raise the cost of living.
But the inconvenience of a slightly
higher cost of living does not compare
with the tragedy of Americans dying in
an unnecessary and unwinnable war.
Moreover, we already pay a substantial
fee for imported oil - the tax dollars we
spend on a military that must be ready
to fight in the Gulf. Hart does not
believe thatAmericansiwant nothing
more than cynical politics that asks
only if the price of gas will go up a few
cents; they want bold leadership that
molds opinion, instead of following
component of any energy policy. The
two Democrats contrast with President
Reagan who, believing that
there is more oil in Alaska than in Saudi
Arabia, sees no need for conservation.
(He claims he learned that "fact" from
Reader's Digest.)
The centerpiece of Hart's conser-
vation efforts is his "Jobs/Energy Con-
servation Program," which would put
tens of thousands of unemployed
Americans to work weatherizing the
nation's buildings and homes. Low-
incomehome-owners could also borrow,
federal funds for weatherization and
4
4
t 1
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Wasserman
Vol. XCIV-No. 155
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Exploitation isn't tasteful
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O
FF YOU ARE going to be exploited
or exploit someone else, for goodness
fakes, do it in good taste - do it like
Playboy. This is the message implied
by Playboy photographer David Chan
vho makes a living capturing "nice,
average girls" on film and exposing
them to the 20 million or so fans of
Hugh Hefner's magazine.
Chan, who is recruiting college
women on campus this week for
Playboy's September "Girls of the Big
Ten" edition, has absolutely no qualms
about luring the University's intellec-
tual women into a business where the
mind is insignificant compared to the
face and breast.
If Chan had a daughter, he said he
would be proud if she became a center-
fold. He would be somewhat concer-
ned, however, about the image the cen-
terfold would portray of his
hypothetical daughter - he wouldn't
let her pose for just any skin magazine,.
but one with taste, like Playboy. "I
would hope they would do a good job of
it like Playboy . . . when we use the
girl, we use her in good taste," Chan
said.
Chan apparently believes. that he is
somewhat of an artist and that "A cen-
terfold is a piece of artwork." Strange,
one might question the dean of the
University's School of Art on that one,
but Webster's dictionary defines art
as: "The conscious use of skill' and
creative imagination, especially in the
production of aesthetic objects." So
what Chan is creating out of photos of
naked University women are objects -
sexual objects to be precise.
What is offensive about Chan 's
"Art?" Could it possibly be that the
majority of intelligent men and women
would rather not think of the human
body as merely (or ideally) something
which triggers hormonal reaction?
The fact that only about 30 women
decided to allow Playboy to use their
photos indicates perhaps that fewer
women are willing to be "used" as
sexual objects primarily for men's
pleasure.
In 1982, when Playgirl recruited men-
for their "Men of the Big Ten" issue,
almost 80 men showed up to see if they
could be transformed into sexual ob-
jects (of art). Apparently, University
men do not feel as uncomfortable ex-
posing their bodies to millions of
voyeurs. But might not 'this be related
to the fact that men feel less uncomfor-
table walking alone down the street at
night? Men are not raped as often as
women.
Granted everyone has the right to
exploit him or herself. But in an intellec-
tual community such as Ann Arbor,
one would hope that University studen-
ts could distinguish between objects of
art and sexual objects, between good
taste and bad, between physical rape
and emotional rape (pornography).,
By the way, Playboy just so hap-
pened to schedule their visit during
April - voted rape prevention month
by the Ann Arbor City Council. It's too
bad photographer Chan couldn't stay
in, town until April 20th when women
will march to "Take Back the Night."
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WF 7ik
An Eglish major's dilemma,
I
By Phillip K. Lawes
Two weeks before graduation,
on the threshold of adulthood, on
the eve of my induction into tax-
payerdom, and I am preoc-
cupied, consumed by formless
fears.
It has something to do with the
fact that I am an English major.
For years I have been attempting
to convince myself that the stuff
I've been doing has some impor-
tance, even the most tenuous
relevance to real life.
For years I have been sup-
pressing laughter as some pom-
pous windbag or other has passed
off the most preposterous fiction
'as work capturing some essence
of the human spirit. Quoth he,
"So we see, ladies and gen-
tlemen, that in the final chapter
of Bourgeois Angst, the
protagonist takes a train into the
city, where he falls into
passionate, but ultimately
unrewarding love with a depar-
tment store mannequin. This is a
superb evocation of the am-
bivalence modern man feels
toward the milieu of the four
bedroom colonial-style house
with attached two-car garage."
How long I have played along
with these academic absurdities
out of convenience. An aging
family man goes to Boston and
has a homosexual affair; or, in a
dream state, a frustrated spin-
ster kills her sister'schildren in
some demented feminist gesture.
I stay up all night writing ten-
pagers on the exact significance
of these masterpieces, enshrining
their authors in the pantheon of
the literary gods.
The work of the English
major is laughable, but it is
never, never simple. Every time
Hence my discomfort.
Ten minutes after listening to
Walter Cronkite thunder his
barrage of commencement
platitudes, I will be ejected from
this esoteric unreality, and
possibly forced into the endless
vacuum of instant oblivion, for-
ced to associate with people who
wear polyester and ' sell in-
surance.
Over the years, study of
English has taken on a strange
duality. An English major has
two options open to him or her: he
or she can either go to law school,
or sell Tupperware. My academic
counselor advises me that I am
firmly on the Tupperware track.
Tragically, my major is un-
derappreciated in our modern
video game society. Personnel
directors at major corporations
spend their spare time making up
English major jokes. The punch
lines invariably feature the
aesthete starving ':o death.
One solution to my financial
difficulties is entrepreneurship.
Of course, there are no guaran-
tees there either. For every com-
puter magnate who makes a
million dollars in three weeks,
there are a million failures who
have to pick themselves up and
start over again.
Take Madison Watts. A few
years ago he bought the
distribution rights to the Mr.
Bagel Mk. 11, the revolutionary
bagel preparation device. This
should not be confused with the
original Mr. Bagel, which had
several design flaws, and being of
East German manufacture,
demonstrated a tendency to op-
press the bagel.
Madison sank all his money in-
to the new, improved Mr. Bagel
- a truly brilliant product - only
to lose his shirt. It seems that he
never took into account that the
pervasive bigotry in American
society prevents the wide accep-
tance of electronic ethnic food
preparation devices.
Maybe entrepreneurialism is
not the way to go. But I have got
to make some money somehow.,
Otherwise, it's only a matter of,
time before my clothes become
dated. The future looks - iffy.
On the 28th of April we will be.
gathered for commencement, in,
a football stadium of all places
The parents will be beaming, and
relieved to be free from further
extortionate tuition costs. Walter'
Cronkite will be inspiring us to
new heights. The androids from'
the business school will bet
dreaming of going out and-
making the world safe for
American products. The'
engineers A; will be dreaming of
the technological frontiers and
the dollars to be made there. I.
will be trying to think up an idea;
for a screenplay, and fighting off:
my dread of the future.
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Daily letter headline
-. -' - ,- ''\
_ ---_ ,_-h
To the Daily:
I read with interest a letter
written by Robert Weinfeld and
Erik Remer, entitled "Premeds
are people too" (Daily, April 12)
Weinfeld and Remer felt
that the Daily reporter had
distorted their views, in thehar-
ticle, "Gunning Through Medical
School" (Daily, April 6). In-
terestingly enough, the Daily
editors gave the letter the
headline of "Premeds Are People
Too." Clearly such a headline
was meant to mock Weinfeld
and Remer's letter. "Of
BLOOM COUNTY
course premeds are people", we
are inclined to say. This device
only serves to discredit their let-
ter unfairly, and is a totally
irresponsible tactic for a
publication which claims to ap-
proach some form of objective
truth.
I mention this, because the
Daily's response to this letter is
not an anomaly. Last fall, I too
was misrepresented by the Daily
in the article on public service in-
ternships. I wrote to explain that
I was not the arrogant person I
was made out to be, nor was my
eb
unfair
employer as undesireable as the
Daily described him. The Daily
gave my letter the headline, "I
Am Not the Hero Described." My
letter to the Daily did not mentiol
that I was or was not a hero. Yet
this headline made my letter a'
farce.b
I find this practice of mocking
letters with which you disagree to
be terribly offensive and un-
professional. Clearly, you owe
your readers an apology.
Michael Katz
April1
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