The Michigan Daily-Thursday, May 22,1980-Page 7
Justice Dept. appeals
to court to reverse
earlier gas tax ruling
From UPIand AP
WASHINGTON-The Justice Depart-
ment yesterday asked an appeals court
to rule that President Carter has power
to impose a dime-a-gallon gasoline fee,
arguing the price hike will make
America less vulnerable "to foreign
powers. "
In legal papers, the administration
asked the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia to overturn
a ruling that blocked an oil import fee
Carter had proposed.
THE APPEALS COURT has
scheduled arguments on the case for
June 9.
Last week, U.S. District Judge
Aubrey Robinson ruled that Carter ex-
ceeded his power in trying to impose
the levy under the Trade Expansion
Act. The price hike was to have taken
effect at the pumps May 15, but the,
court ruling prevented that.
The administration immediately ap-
pealed, arguing the program would cut
gasoline consumption enough to reduce
oil imports by 100,000 barrels a day. af-
ter a year.
THE JUSTICE Department said Car-
ter decided to impose the levy because
continued dependence on foreign oil
"makes the nation vulnerable to
foreign powers, injures our balance of
payments and casts doubts on our
ability to achieve foreign policy objec-
tives and fulfill international
obligations."
The oil fee levy is intended to "reduce
the nation's dangerous dependence on
foreign oil," the legal papers said,
arguing that Robinson erred in sub-
stituting his own judgment for Carter's.
"Judicial restraint is particularly
appropriate here where the president's
judgment relates to the overlapping
concerns of national security and
foreign policy and involves highly
technical judgments about economic
policy," the Justice Department said.
CARTER'S PLAN was challenged by
five House members, three consumer
organizations, a trade association of
gasoline producers and marketers and
an oil company. Lawyers for those
challenging the fee have not yet filed
their appeals brief.
The oil fee is being challenged not
only in the courts but on Capitol Hill,
where there is a strong move to deprive
Carter of any right to impose it-even if
he wins the court case filed by private
groupe opposing the levy.
The House Ways and Means Commit
tee is to vote today on a resolution to
bar Carter from raising gasoline
prices, and is expected to recommend
and his entire oil fee plan be blocked.
BARBARA BLUM, DEPUTY administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency, and John Macy Jr., Federal Emergency Management director, detail
plans to relocate more than 700 families in the Love Canal area of Niagara
Falls, N.Y. yesterday.
Gov 't aids removal of
.r Love Canal famuiies
WASHINGTON (AP)-President
Carter declared a state of emergency
for New York's Love Canal area
yesterday and said the federal gover-
nment will pay to evacuate 710 families
while it conducts new studies on the
health dangers of 21,000 tons of aban-
doned chemical wastes.
Officials said the voluntary
evacuation would begin immediately.
The families are to be housed in motels,
apartments, hospitals and vacant Ar-
my living quarters in the Niagara
Falls, N.Y. area.
THE COST OF the relocation and
housing for up to a year-expected to be
between $3 million and $5 million-will
be shared by the federal government
and the State of New York, ad-
ministration officials said.
The government response, however,
falls far short of the permanent
relocation Love Canal residents have
been demanding.
'"I want to get out permanently," said
John Wright, an area resident. "I don't
like this 'temporary for a year.' I might
be dead in a year."
OFFICIALS SAID NO decision on
permenent relocation would be-made
until after the new health studies are
completed-expected to take six mon-
ths or longer.
In August 1978, Carter declared Love
Canal a disaster area and the state
spent $10 million to purchase the 239
homes closest to the abandoned dump
site. Owners of outlying homes have
complained since then that they also
face serious health threats from the 15
acres of buried chemicals.
But no further government action
was taken until Saturday, when the En-
vironmental Protection Agency an-
nounced that blood tests conducted in
January had turned up chromosome
damage in 11 of 36 persons tested.
BARBARA BLUM, deputy ad-
ministrator of the EPA, said those
results, along with recent New York
state studies which found blood and
liver abnormalities and other diseases
among Love Canal resident, had con-
vinced'the agency that more families
needed to be evacuatead at least tem-
porarily.
In a statement, Hooker Chemical
Company said it fully supported the
more detailed tests being proposed by
the government, and said those tests
would prove that the chemicals did not
cause the genetic damage.
As it has before, Hooker pointed out
that it has not owned the Love Canal
site since 1953, when it deeded the land
to the Niagara Falls school board.
214 s. uiversity STARTS TOMORROW
MON, TUE, THUR, FRI, 7-9:30
tre Phone 668-6416 SAT-SUN-WED
1:304:00f-7:00-9:30 PM
THURSDAY, May 22, 1980
GABRIELLE CARLSON
Department of Psychiatry, UCLA
"MANIA IN CHILDHOOD
AND ADOLESCENCE"
MHRI Conference Room 1057
3:45 to 5:00 p.m.
'a3:ap 9 ~i gug
Produced by FRANZ SEITZ, VOLKER SCHLONDORFF and ANATOLE DAUMAN
Directed by VOLKER SCHLONDORFF Based on "THE TIN DRUM" by GUNTER GRASS
Screenplay by JEAN-CLAUDE CARRIEREVOLKER SCHLONDORFF
and FRANZ SEITZ in collaboration withGUNTER GRASS
R--4- RogerGormanPresents A New WorldPicturesRelease
1IR ,. ."."...©. 1979 Franz Seitz Film-Bioskop Film-Artemis Film-Argos Fims
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