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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1979)
he Energy Crunch . . . Clements will support gasahol bill THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1979 Page 13 [ United Press International AUSTIN — Gov. Bill Clements watched Tuesday as 12 gallons of gasolol - mixture of gasoline and alcohol — were pumped into his Gas use up nmost states, wn in a few United Press International WASHINGTON — Motorists rood 320.5 million gallons of oline per day last year, up 11 million gallons or 3.6 percent from the previous year, the , teinsportation Department re- _jrhe 1978 gas consumption re in Bts fleets a 12.2 percent hike in daily consumption over 1975, the re port indicated Monday. R’hree states and the District of Columbia reported decreases in gas consumption — Alaska 5.9 percent; Delaware .2 percent; ipstrict of Columbia .7 percent; and Iowa .3 percent. executive limousine, then said he will approve legislation promoting the production of gasohol in Texas. Agriculture Commissioner Re agan Brown, who arranged for 5,000 gallons of gasohol to be made availa ble free to state officials, pumped the fuel into the governor’s car as part of day-long activities promoting gasohol. Leaders of three statewide farm organizations had joined Brown and other state officials in the Capitol earlier in the day for a rally promot ing passage of bills legalizing the production of alcohol for fuel in Texas and exempting the fuel mix ture from taxes. Clements, Speaker Bill Clayton and Land Commissioner Bob Armstrong were among the first of ficials to agree to test the fuel in their vehicles. Armstrong rode his motorcycle through the rain to the gas station for a fillup — one gallon — of gasohol. Clements said he will sign the gasohol legislation if it reaches his desk, but cautioned the fuel distil led from agricultural products is not the only answer to the gasoline shortage. “None of us should get lost in the idea gasohol is going to to solve all our energy problems in the short term, because it’s not, but it can help,” the governor said. “It’s a good thing. The more we can address the problems in energy, in whatever form, the better off we’ll be.” Backers of the gasohol program quickly stuck a gasohol bumper sticker on Clements’ limousine be fore it drove away. The fuel mixture of 90 percent un leaded gasoline and 10 percent al cohol will be available to legislators and other state officials through Thursday, Brown said. He said the alcohol can be made from corn, grain, watermelons, sugar cane or other agricultural products, and Midwest Solvents Inc. is prepared to build a plant near Santa Rosa in the Rio Grande Valley to produce the fuel alcohol. “We can’t make alcohol in Texas right now because of the liquor laws,” Brown said. “It’s ridiculous that millions of gallons of gasohol al ready have been sold in other states and we can’t produce it in Texas. It’s unfair to farmers.” He said the only opposition to the gasohol bills has been from the liquor industry, which is concerned about legalizing the distilling of al cohol in Texas. LAKEVIEW CLUB 3 Miles N. on Tabor Road Saturday Night: Tommy Overstreet & The Nashville Express From 9-1 p.m. ""stampede’dance'' Every Thursday Night $2.00 per person All Brands, Cold Beer 55 Cents 8-12 U.S. audits books to halt gas gouging United Press International NEW YORK — The U.S. De partment of Energy has launched a nationwide campaign against gasoline price-gouging. Energy officials said Monday they would attack the gouging problem with a stepped-up effort to audit the st in the world not enough ore reactor checks needed United Press International SVASHINGTON — A Nuclear latory Commission consultant Hsday recommended installation proved instrument panels in atcftnic power plant control rooms to i help prevent accidents like the one ht)! Khree Mile Island. ■All of the instrumentation should Lt. Fi belcompletely re-examined as to ountel whether additional information can bepequired,” said Walter Lipinski, ie ino« anSnstrument expert at the Argonne inconj National Laboratory in Illinois, irks.Eli Hjs testimony before the Advi- esanisoiy Committee on Reactor thecaiifSafeguards — a scientific panel set upsto advise the regulators — was in line with comments Monday from fflfcfficial of the company that built th| plant. ^■abcoek and Wilcox official John I MacMillan testified the Three Mile Island operator had enough infor- ! maion at his disposal to control the f los| of cooling water when the inci- ;an but did not realize it for twa hours. Hrs, ITS irge The safeguards committee was working on a set of recom mendations to the NRG before actu ally meeting with the five commis sioners later in the day. Although Lipinski said the in struments at Three Mile Island were “the most up-to-date in the world, he had about a dozen pro posals. They included installing: —A device like an airline flight recorder to record exactly what happens during an emergency. —A remote control pressure vent on top of the reactor. —Better temperature indicators on the control panel and lights or alarms to indicate whether the safety systems are continuously working. But another NRG consultant, Carl Michelson, cautioned in an interview about the need to study the question in detail before starting to “clutter up the place and involve massive amounts of wiring.” Committee member Jeremiah Ray suggested requiring more sophisticated computer monitoring, as exists in electric power plants, to tell an operator when an emergency is nearing. Lipinski told reporters he at tended a meeting in 1976 at which either the owners or manufacturers of Three Mile Island and a similar plant at North Anna, Va., com plained about the cost of instru ments to reflect safety status con tinuously. He said he did not re member details of the meeting. In lengthy testimony Monday, MacMillan and NRG safety officials said they did not believe design was the chief cause of the Three Mile Island problem. MacMillan said Three Mile Island and eight other Babcock and Wilcox-built plants could be oper ated safely although design im provements will be made to help operators do their job. books of gas dealers, particularly in the New York City area where prices are among the highest in the nation. To herald the start of the cam paign, Alan Moss, a lawyer for the department, held a news conference to issue summons to Joseph Per- coca, owner of a Mobil station at 62nd Street and First Avenue, where unleaded premium gas was going for 93.9 cents a gallon. According to Moss, during a three-month investigation federal auditors had determined the Mobil station had overcharged customers by $75,000 over the last five years. Moss said that in addition to the New York area, the energy depart ment had received numerous com plaints of price-gouging from south ern California and southern Florida. f 1 /upTnamba Eddie Dominguez '66 [ iiiiif —^ (MMI United Airlines h|alts April flights because of strike t United Press International ASHINGTON — United Air- liifes has canceled all flights through AAil 30, because of the strike by jfiKhanics and other ground-crew workers now in its third week. The ouncement was made Monday, he airline — the largest air car- f in the nation with 160,000 daily isengers — previously announced Rvould not take new reservations for any flights departing before June * The airline and representatives of the Mechanics and Aerospace Wo union broke off federal diation efforts to end the strike lApril 4, and no resumption has been fieiWeduled. it If you want the real thing, not frozen or canned . . . We call It "Mexican Food Supreme." 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