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Wednesday, June 7, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Wednesday
• Batt speaks out against Su
preme Court ruling — p. 2.
• Utah physician accused of sup
plying Hughes with codeine il
legally — p. 5.
• NBA championship series to
night — p. 10.
Hill ruling due
on bond sale
The first rule of Aggieland: ‘Wait*
There’s no such thing as being too early to register for summer
school classes at Texas A&M. These students (left) learned that
Tuesday morning walking to the end of a line of “L thru Rs”
that extended from DeWare Field House across Wellborn
Road to the West Campus. Yet that line disappeared within an
hour. One mechanical engineer (right) uses another engineer’s
back to finish another of “those cards” for registration.
Battalion photo by Pat O'Malley
United Press International
AUSTIN — Attorney General John Hill
is expected to rule next week in a con
troversy over a proposal by the Texas
Municipal Power Agency to issue bonds
for $150 million to build a power plant.
Lawyers for the consortium formed by
Denton, Garland, Greenville and Bryan
complained at a hearing Tuesday the at
torney general’s office has improperly
blocked the bond issue.
Hearings examiners for Hill said they
would prepare recommendations on the
case for him to consider by Friday and an
ticipated a decision next week.
Without an okay from Hill the consor
tium cannot issue the bonds needed to
construct a $700 million lignite-fueled
generator and pay for lignite leases.
The attorney general’s bonds division
has refused to approve the bond issue be
cause of a lawsuit against TMPA by the
Grimes County Taxpapers Association.
“The litigation filed in Grimes County is
without merit,” TMPA lawyer Roy L. Bar
rett of Waco argued,
Barrett said the taxpayer group lost its
case in district court and a court of civil
appeals. Although the taxpayers are ap
pealing to the State Supreme Court, Bar
rett said TMPA was seeking to have the
petition dismissed.
The taxpayer suit, Barrett said, is being
handled by the Grimes County Attorney
on behalf of the state.
“A county attorney is not authorized by
the Constitution to file a suit or to repre
sent the State of Texas in a case before the
Supreme Court,’ Barrett said.
“The attorney general’s office should
approve the bonds because at this time
there is no challenge to the existence of
TMPA,” Barrett said.
James Riggs, chief of Hill’s bonds divi
sion, said the attorney general since 1928
had followed a policy of refusing to ap
prove bonds when there was a lawsuit
challenging the validity of the securities.
“The attorney general cannot be im
pressed by the fact that the Texas Munici
pal Power Authority has prevailed (so far
in the court suit),” Riggs said.
The cities of Garland, Greenville, Bryan
and Denton banded together in a consor
tium in 1975 to finance a lignite-fueled
generating plant.
TMPA has encountered increasing op
position from landowners in areas such as
Grimes County, where farmers fought ef
forts to condemn their land to mine lig
nite.
Skylab is readied
for week-long test
ampus parking situation to ease up
or summer term, acting police chief says
By DEBBY KRENEK
Battalion Editor
K' race for a parking space is
H. temporarily.
■ lompetition among students for parking
s ces should lessen considerably this
^ timer because there will be ample park-
Sifoi the estimated 12,000 summer school
jjdents, John R. McDonald, acting Texas
MM University police chief said.
£ ;lBoubt if any students will even have to
3 ;k across the tracks,” McDonald said,
$ (erring to student lots 56 and 61 located
0 l]st of campus across Wellborn Road.
© ppDonald said one change in the park-
t> ; regulations has been put into effect for
pummer to facilitate parking for stu-
\ts. A student who has a valid summer
iking permit may park in any of the
^juent-designated lots. There will be no
rarate parking areas for day students,
rm students, males or females.
Summer parking permits for students
st $12 and are valid until the end of Au-
st. Summer bicycle permits cost $1.50,
and motorcycle permits $6. These can be
purchased at the University Police De
partment at the corner of Houston and Jer
sey streets.
McDonald said he anticipates the worst
parking problem this summer to be at the
Veterinary Medicine Complex where con
struction has limited the number of spaces
available in lot 36 east of the complex.
“As long as students are not creating a
problem such as parking behind one
another or in lanes marked loading’ or ‘no
parking,’ we will try to be as lenient as
possible in enforcing this area,” McDonald
said.
He encourages students with classes at
the vet school to park in lot 64 located
across FM 60 east of the vet complex.
“Lot 64 has been expanded to accommo
date these students and is not far from the
actual complex,” McDonald said.
Parking in lot 60 across from Rudder
Center will not be open to students this
summer because it has been reserved for
visitors and those who are attending con
ferences at the University.
Staff parking lots are only open to those
with staff parking stickers. Enforcement in
these lots will remain strict, said
McDonald.
“Many of the staff will be taking vacations
throughout the summer so even though the
lots may not appear to be full, all the spaces
will still be taken,” he said.
“We have to accept the fact that the park
ing situation is bad and will continue to get
worse next fall,” McDonald said. “But for
the summer at least, I don’t foresee any
major problems."
United Press International
HOUSTON — Scientists are readying
Skylab for a week-long maneuver that
hopefully will correct the craft’s orbit and
prevent it from falling to Earth.
Scientists Tuesday instructed computers
aboard Skylab to begin charging its bat
teries in preparation for the first maneuver
Friday morning.
Officials of the Johnson Space Center are
trying to keep the orbiting laboratory on
course until astronauts from the Space
Shuttle can push it into a higher orbit with
remote-controlled rockets or set it on a safe
path back to Earth.
If Skylab’s course cannot be altered, the
84-ton, 118-foot hulk could fall back to
Earth as early as next spring with much of it
being destroyed in a slow re-entry into
Earth’s atmosphere.
“We got the batteries back up and we
turned on the CMG (control movement
gyro) heaters,” a JSC spokesman said.
“They turn those on a couple of days before
they turn on the gyro. It takes about 12
hours to get the charge up to maximum.
“They’re just monitoring the system and
making sure everything operates okay,”
the spokesman said.
The control center will maneuver the
Skylab to a position so that the solar panels
on the outside of the craft will point to the
sun at all times.
On Saturday, the vehicle will be in
structed to go on an end-on pattern, the
spokesman said.
Hard rains spell bad news for farmers;
predictions for wheat crop not promising
Pipeline initial use rates
ipheld by Supreme Court
United Press International
First it was the extended drought that
damaged the Texas wheat crop. And when
rain finally came, it was in the form of
spring downpours that only caused more
problems for farmers and cut their produc
tion in half.
There is more bad news for farmers. Ag
riculture Commissioner Reagan Brown
says the current price for wheat is $2.70 per
bushel, compared to $1.93 for the same
date last year. But he estimates the cost of
production of that bushel in Texas is $3.28
for dryland farming and $3.78 for irrigated
lands.
The Texas Agriculture Department is
scheduled to release its first major 1978
assessment of acreage and anticipated har
vest Friday, but disclosed Tuesday recent
rains across the northern half of Texas have
allowed for harvest of 5 percent of the crop,
compared to 13 percent at the same time
last year and a three-year average for the
date of 10 percent.
Texas farmers planted 5.8 million acres
of wheat last fall and winter, a decrease of
700,000 from 1977. Bill Nelson, executive
director of the Texas Wheat Producers As
sociation in Amarillo, predicted less than
half of the acreage planted will be har
vested.
“Of that 5.8 million acres, we will harvest
about 2.8. The other 3 million has been
abandoned to the drought, hail or floods or
grazed out with livestock, which in many
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Supreme
ourt, in a ruling that may cost owners of
ie trans-Alaska oil pipeline more than
100 million, upheld 8-0 Tuesday a gov-
rnment order limiting initial rates
iarged for use of the 800-mile-long line.
The ruling means pipeline owners will
ive to refund higher rates that the jus-
ces had allowed them to collect over a
iree-month period while the case was
nder consideration.
Rhe court had only allowed them to col-
:ct the higher rates — an estimated $1.5
lillion more per day, totalling $100 mil-
^on or more — on condition they return
be extra money if they lost the case,
gghe case involved rates charged to oil
iroducers that use the pipeline to trans-
>ort crude oil from Alaska’s North Slope to
^he ice-free port of Valdez. It arose shortly
fore the line began operation last sum-
Late registration
continues today
Although today marked first day of
lasses in the summer school session, the
|b in front of G. Rollie White remained
;thy as many students continued late
|istering.
Late registration will continue until 5
tin. today in G. Rollie White.
Students who register today will have to
lay a $4 late registration fee in addition to
heir regular fees.
I Friday is the last day for enrolling in the
irst summer session.
iSummer school fee collection will also
continue today and tomorrow in G. Rollie
White.
mer, when seven of the eight owners filed
proposed initial rates of from $6.04 to
$6.44 a barrel with the Interstate Com
merce Commission.
The ICC has power to suspend a new
rate for seven months pending an investi
gation of its reasonableness and lawful
ness.
After protests that the proposed
pipeline rates were too high, it suspended
them June 28, 1977, and approved interim
rates $1.13 to $1.67 per barrel lower and
said the companies must agree to refund
any amount which the investigation later
turned up to be excessive.
Faced with the alternative of not open
ing the pipeline, the owners acceded. But
they also went to court, charging the ICC
does not have the power to suspend pro
posed initial rates and had wrongly set im
posed interim rates without a full hearing.
Justice William Brennan, writing for the
high court, said Tuesday the ICC was au
thorized to suspend initial tariff schedules
of an interstate carrier, and has power to
set maximum interim rates without an ad
judicatory hearing.
The seven-month suspension expired
Jan. 28. Since then, the companies have
been free to keep charging the higher
rates pending completion of the rate inves
tigation, which has been taken over by the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The rates do not affect the final price
paid by consumers. But they do benefit oil
companies that own and use the pipeline
by reducing the amount of royalties they
have to pay Alaska and Alaskan natives.
That is because royalties are calculated on
the basis of the wellhead price, which is
reached by subtracting the transportation
cost from the market price.
Appealing were Mobil Alaska, Exxon,
Arco and BP Pipeline companies. Other
pipeline owners include Sohio, Union
Alaska, Amerada Hess and Phillips Alaska.
‘Must’ve been that high-octane gas...’
A College Station fireman looks over the foreign
ear that’s engine burst into flames at a University
Drive service station Tuesday morning. The car’s
driver, Texas A&M student Jason Lo, told fire of
ficials he had just put some gasoline in the car,
which belongs to a friend, and started the engine
when it burst into flames. Lo escaped uninjured.
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
cases is related to the other three cases,”
Nelson said.
“Last year Texas made 117 million
bushels of wheat. This year, as of May 1,
the projection was we would make 58.8
million.”
Nelson blamed early drought for most of
the damage.
“The rains that came, came too late to be
of much benefit to the wheat,” he said.
“Most of the dryland wheat had been aban
doned before the rains came. Much of that
that was remaining was damaged by rains
or hail. Probably as much as 35 million of
that 58 million is in irrigated acres.”
Typical of the weather’s role in state ag
riculture was rainfall in portions of Deaf
Smith County totaling 12 to 14 inches in the
last two weeks while other parts of the same
Panhandle county never received a
sprinkle, according to Juston McBride,
county agent at Hereford.
He estimated 35,000 acres of Deaf Smith
County wheat received damage of 30 per
cent due to rain, hail and winds. Another
8,000 acres had 50 percent loss.
The wheat harvest throughout the
Panhandle is not scheduled to begin until
about June 20, Brown said.
The agriculture commission said fuel and
equipment necessary for harvesting were
in good supply, but a spokesman said, “The
problem is paying for it.
As the wheat ripens from south to north
across the state, rains in sections ready for
cutting can cause more problems by batter
ing down plants, decreasing the yield, or, if
showers continue, ruining the grain.
“The more moisture it has, the more
wheat will deterioriate,” Brown said.
The agriculture department said rains
within the past week have stopped the har
vest around Wichita Falls, where an
additional 1.24 inches fell Tuesday.
Brown’s office estimated the parity price
at $5.27 per bushel. Parity is the amount
the price of agricultural goods should have
increased compared to consumer goods
during a period of several decades.
“Those figures include the cost of land,
showing it is tough on the younger farmer
who is paying for his land, an agriculture
department official said. “Our figures show
that the price of bread has never gone down
(while wheat prices were depressed). The
price of raw products has no real relation to
rises in food. We’ve never understood how
the farmer could be blamed (for bread
prices).