lements
dd-even
extends
system
■ United Press International
| AUSTIN - Gov. Bill Clements extended the odd-even gasoline allocation system
to five counties near Dallas and Houston Monday and reported the gasoline purchase
Bstrictions have shortened lines at some service stations by 25 to 40 percent
ers ■ Clements signed an executive order extending the odd-even system and minimum
5 a J7 !t #cl maximum gasoline purchase restrictions to Brazoria, Collin, Liberty, Ellis and
<* solution|jm ont g om ery counties effective at midnight Wednesday
problems," |r Ed Vetter Clements’ special energy adviser, said Richmond city officials also have
>•1 s uniquel^ked about being included in the odd-even sales restrictions, but state officials feel
its ability t 0 fSere could be enforcement problems if the limitations are not imposed countywide
=* of sex, a?( M Vetter said he expects Texas to have an additional 20 million gallons of gasoline
ticipate miring the month of July, but noted there will be one more day in that month
ce fan 311(1,11 “The first d ^>' has been better than I expected it would be,” Vetter said of the
thwhile worlfodd-even plan. This is not a miracle cure. It’s not going to satisfy every single Texan.
’ showedape ,Jlul it does satisfy the bulk of the problem.”
ill uses up 13« Vetter said Exxon checked its service stations in Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth
ompared wjl^Bonday and repoi ted lines were 25 to 40 percent shorter. The energy adviser said no
ut e fortenniforcement problems were reported Monday, but indicated citizens who have com-
3ss countryiaints about regulation violations may call a toll-free number to report offenders at
^ workout
racquetbalU® “The Department of Justice will prosecute (violators),” Vetter said.
‘ as often anw Clements ordered gasoline purchase restrictions imposed in the state’s two largest
tennis pLMban areas, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, effective Monday in an effort to al-
sBviate long lines at service stations.
base?? 31 ■ The governor told reporters Monday he was pleased at response to his fuel alloca-
nacij— m pi^ anc i energy conservation measures but chided a Capitol visitor who foiled to
( n f. s P° rtl f Observe his shirtsleeve dictum.
problems (■Clements sported short sleeves and an open shirt in accord with his symbolic
nt p^ sica j ^jampaign to encourage more offices to set air conditioning thermostats at 76 degrees.
ssures of vo*
While odd-even gas rationing hasn’t hit Col
lege Station yet, many service stations are
closing on weekends as this rather pointed
message indicated. Gene Zulkowski, a local
station owner, says stations are closing early
because they are short on gas — due to the
decreased allotments given them by their dis
tributors
Battalion photo by Clay Cockrill
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Battalion
Vol. 72 No. 163
8 Pages
Tuesday, June 26, 1979
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Weather
Partly cloudy skies today with a
chance of afternoon and evening
thunderstorms. Precip. probability
40% today and 30% tonight and
tomorrow. The high for today low
90’s and the low in the low 70’s.
Winds will be South-Easterly at
5-10 m.p.h. and gusting higher in
thunderstorms.
ouston stations ease into rationing
>nd ride
> events,
rsity of Wra
(.77 secondi
second-go-i
ithwestern
rsity (Wei'M United Press International
he combined*jHOUSTON — No one promised odd-
Hen day gasoline rationing would open
'ook postedBwlessly in the nation’s oil capital,
in breakawjHFeard Taleb, an Iranian driving a car
I from How with an even-numbered plate, bought $5
:he combine{B>rth of gasoline on an odd-numbered day
7.45. from Thang Hoang, a Vietnamese immi-
■ound leadtHant, who said he didn’t know anything
^petition weBout the $6 minimum purchase require-
wson and Sab mi nt.
■When a reporter mentioned to Taleb, a
student at the University of Houston, that
B had an even-numbered plate and was
S
/os
ineligible to make his purchase he smiled
broadly and said, “I know.”
“You just thought you’d see if you could
get away with it?” the reporter asked.
Yes,” he replied with a laugh. “I must
use gas for job because I need money. If I
can’t make money, I can’t stay here.”
“There’s also a minimum purchase,”
Taleb was informed. “You have to buy at
least $6 worth.”
“Thank you,” he said. “This is a big
problem for the American people.”
Across the street from the Conoco-
supplied Jet station where Taleb bought
gasoline, Exxon USA soothed the “big
problem with free doughnuts and soft
drinks for those waiting in line in 90-
degree plus heat on Monday’s first day of
the odd-even plan instituted in Houston,
Dallas and Fort Worth by Governor Cle
ments.
Jack Roland, an accountant sitting in his
car on a side street awaiting an opportu
nity to pull into the station, put up only a
mild protest when Alton Evans, a chef,
turned off a boulevard and cut in front of
him.
Roland honked his horn and waved his
hands but Evans looked straight ahead and
Roland, surrendering to the heat, re
mained inside his car.
“I’m not sure he understood where the
back of the line was,” Roland said while
Evans tanked up. “I honked at him but I
don t think he ever saw me. They put the
"last car sign ” (designating the last car al
lowed to buy gas) on my back windshield
and I’m just glad to be the last car.”
Roland had last tried to buy' gasoline at
5:30 a.m. Saturday at a station in his sur-
burban neighborhood. He figured there
were 100 cars ahead of him at sunrise so he
went home and back to bed. Monday he
waited 20 minutes.
The manager of the company-owned
station said his name could not be used
and he shoidd not be quoted about the
odd-even plan.
“There’s an unwritten law that the only
comment can come from the superinten
dent,” he said. “I’ve already been hung on
ihat once.”
The snacks, he said, were Exxon’s idea
and the company even furnished an extra
attendant to pass them out to customers.
Only three cars with even-numbered
plates had pulled into the station during
the three hours it was open (7 until 10
a.m.) and each left quietly when informed
they couldn’t buy gas.
Laverne Johnson of Stuttgart, Ark., and
en route to Corpus Christi for vacation,
would have been next to buy gas when the
pumps shut down. She said she didn’i
know anything about the odd-even plan
But when the Exxon closed, she drove
across the street and filled up at Hoang’;
Jet station after a 15-min'ute wait.
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WHAT ENERGT
[Trouble is the price’
7
No energy crisis in Hell
'M60
130581
United Press International
HELL, Mich. — Hell hath no
noticeable energy crisis.
I don’t see where the energy
shortage is affecting Hell. We don’t
sven have a gas station,” said Virgil
McCall, owner of the Dam Site Inn,
one of Hell’s three places of busi
ness.
McCall hoisted his can of Miller
freer, toasting Hell’s fortune.
Jim Meyers, on the next bar stool,
set down his Pabst, and said the
grocery next door once had a gas
P U T)P- Didn’t work,” he said.
Fim Hurley, drinking Busch,
* a id, The trouble was that every-
ody would fill up their tank and
hen go inside and tell the grocer
hey had put in only $2 worth. It
was Hell.”
Laughter broke along the bar.
utside a late spring rain slicked
county road D-32 and goose pim
pled the surfaces of the local fishing
spots from Blind Lake to Silver
ake. Hell is a weekend resort for
etroit, 44 miles to the southeast,
a . the residents of Hell figured
[ ain and not a gasoline shortage was
eeping business away.
In the souvenir shop — a “Stolen
- Hell, Michigan” bath towel is
, oO and cheaper are tennis bail
ee “Snowballs From Hell” — Al
fop glanced through the window at
nose of the 5-foot-high stuffed devil
seated by the door.
“This is the worst season we’ve
ever had. No one on the road. No
one in the camp ground. I guess a
lot of people decided to stay home
and save gasoline. They may have to
walk anywhere, even to Hell.”
Two automobiles pulled in off
D-32. Two families entered.
“Well, I suppose it’s not any gas
shortage. Just the confounded rain
of Hell,” Culp sqid.
A third and a fourth and still
another car approached. Culp’s
wife, Thelma, became busy at the
cash register.
“Hell’s looking up,” he said. “But
not me. Had open heart surgery and
Thelma and I are moving perma
nently to Florida, to Babson, below
Orlando. It’s better there than Hell
for health.
“Hell is for the healthy. Been
here 10 years. Tm 65 now. We’re
selling out at the end of the season
and getting out of Hell. Wanna buy
the shop?”
His wife smiled. “This morning
the slows were due to the rain, the
weather, not any gasoline shortage.
People enjoy coming to Hell and
they don’t discuss hellish subjects
like gasoline.
“The trouble with gasoline is not
any shortage. The service stations at
Pinckney, three miles up the road,
are open. The trouble with gas is the
price. Up 22 cents a gallon in the
last week,” she said.
In the Dam Site Inn, a few form
ers drank coffee and talked of crops
and the price of new machinery and
market margins and put much sugar
in their cups to make the talk swee
ter. They talked of fret and they did
not discuss gasoline. At their table
they said they had no shortage.
At the bar, McCall tried to see an
energy crisis dimension in Hell.
“Well, we have had our first energy
freak. Fellow over the road put in
solar heat. Hell’s got solar heat.”
Meyers, Hurley and Roy Harvey
grinned and drank to that.
“As a matter of fact, a gasoline
shortage may be good for Hell,”
McCall said. “People in Detroit may
be too scared to go up north. They
know a tank of gas will get you, here
and back to Detroit. Hell may not
be the wilderness wonderland but,
by gosh, the crappie get up to a foot
long.”
Harvey said the conversation was
deteriorating into a discussion of
rival beers. He said the town topic
seemed to be either that or the
glories of the Detroit Tigers or the
damnation of the New York Yan
kees. “That, or fishing, that’s what
we talk about. Nobody ever men
tions an energy crisis,” he said.
“Why in Hell should we?” said
McCall.
All laughed.
Energy conservation standards
use additional fuel, report says
Compliance with state and federally
prescribed thermostat settings would re
quire use of additional fuel to heat the sys
tem serving a portion of the buildings on
the Texas A&M University campus.
That ironic report was presented at a
meeting called by Clyde H. Wells, chair
man of the Texas A&M University System
Board of Regents, to discuss energy con
servation in the wake of proclamations and
directives by Texas Gov. W.P. Clements
and the U.S. Department of Energy re
spectively. The governor has called for
thermostats to be set at 76 degrees, while
DOE has proposed 80 degrees.
The regents chairman plus other uni
versity officials attended the meeting clad
in open-collar short-sleeve shirts, similar
to the dress that Clements has donned in
his energy speeches lately.
Texas A&M President Jarvis E. Miller
said the “co-generation” power system on
College Station campus would require
heating the water which provides the basis
for the air-conditioning.
“We certainly intend to do everything
possible to conserve energy — and have
had energy-saving practices in effect since
the first crisis 1974 — but we are confident
that no one wants you to use more fuel sim
ply to meet an arbitrary standard for ther
mostat settings. Dr. Miller said. “That
would be wasteful.”
He explained the phenomenon at Texas
A&M stems from the fact that the univer
sity generates its own electricity at a plant
on campus.
“The steam from the electrical generat
ing operation is used to operate both the
centralized heating and air-conditioning
system which serves a large portion of the
campus,” Dr. Millr said. “This is heat that
would otherwise be wasted.
Federal welfare money cannot
be denied on basis of sex: Court
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Supreme
Court Monday unanimously struck down a
Social Security Act provision allowing fed
eral assistance for unemployed fathers, but
not for out-of-work mothers.
The justices upheld a lower court,
which ruled it is unconstitutional to differ
entiate on the basis of sex in disbursing
welfare money, an^l which ordered bene
fits extended to families regardless of
which parent is unemployed.
The high court also affirmed similar
lower-court rulings on companion cases
from Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Monday’s ruling affects at least 26 states
and the District of Columbia which par
ticipate in the state-federal program of Aid
to Families with Dependent Children-
Unemployed Fathers.
Justice Harry Blackmun wrote for the
court, “We conclude the gender classifica
tion of (the section) is not substantially re
lated to the attainment of any important
and valid statutory goals.
“It is, rather, part of the ‘baggage of
sexual stereotypes’ that presumes the
father has the primaiy responsibility to
provide a home and its essentials,’ while
the mother is the ‘center of the home and
family life.
“Legislation that rests on such presump
tions, without more, cannot survive
scrutiny under the due process clause of
the Fifth Amendment.”
The main case was brought by a
Springfield, Mass., couple denied public
assistance because the husband, William
Westcott, then 18, did not have enough
work experience to qualify as an unem
ployed father.
Although his wife, Cindy, met the defi
nition of unemployed head of household,
the state still denied benefits.
The court split, 5-4, on how to remedy
the problem. The majority upheld the
federal trial court s remedy -— to extend
benefits to families where either parent is
considered unemployed under the law.
Massachusetts said Such a ruling would
cost $11.45 million more to administer the
program in 1979. Justice Department
lawyers estimated the total cost to state-
federal programs would be an additional
$510.7 million because of the numbers of
newly eligible people.
Lone Star Gas to mull
Bryan’s rate hike plan .
By LOUIE ARTHUR
Raf-talion Staff
The proposed gas rate hike for the city of Bryan is now in the hands of Lone Star Gas
Company, who now has 30 days to approve or reject the city’s plan.
The second and final reading of an ordinance to determine the rate gas users are
charged was passed unanimously by the Bryan City Council Monday. The first read
ing of the ordinance was passed in an emergency council meeting June 18.
Al Bartley, local manager of Lone Star Gas, said at that time he expected his
company to approve the proposed rate hike although it was 36 percent less than the
original request. The rate hike, about $1.25 per month for the average user, would go
into effect immediately upon approval by Lone Star Gas.
In other action, the council adopted an ordinance creating a Board of Equalization
and appointed three members to this board: Bob Holmes, Billy Hodge and Bassett
Orr.
The council tabled a resolution to form a non-profit corporation to acquire student
loan notes because they had given no previous thought as to who they would select as
members.
College Station already has a three-member board and the two cities are expected
to work together on this program.
Two resolutions approving plans and engineer’s estimates for improvement of four
streets were passed. The city will accept bids for improvement of Biyant, Hender
son, Suncrest and Trant Streets.
The council rejected a change order for maintenance to restore Coulter Field to its
original shape when the improvement plans were first made. Mayor Richard Smith
objected to the price that they would be charged and said that R.T. Montgomery,
Inc. would have to come down to an increase of 25 percent of the original price or else
the project would be re-bid.
If Montgomery comes down on their price, it would be an increase of $4,000
instead of the $4,580 proposed by the company.
During discussion on the bid awarded to Gulf Oil Corporation for the citv’s
gasoline and diesel fuel, Mayor Smith said that the city was planning to start a fuel
conservation program.