Pag
National
THE BATTALION Page 5
TUESDAY, JULY 7, 1981
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Watt limits leasing plan
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hotgun,
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary James Watt is expected to
cut back drastically his controversial plan to put almost all federal
coastal waters up for oil and gas leasing in the next five years, a
ipokesman said Monday.
The Interior Department spokesman said Watt probably will
inderwe*.' announce a scaled down leasing plan sometime this week, backing
’ir pants; away from his original proposal to offer 200 million offshore acres
annually for oil and gas exploration.
air, reside Watt drew heavy criticism from the oil industry as well as conserva-
olebratitu tionists, state governments and federal officials for his five-year prop
osal to offer practically the entire federal outer- continental shelf for
ost town; lease.
The spokesman said the revised plan probably means the agency
will “just offer the industry whatever seems to have the best pros-
■bects.”
1 “It would be a lot more than what would have been offered under
• the (Carter administration) program, but it’s still a lot less than 200
1 pMon acres a year,” he said.
Another possible alternative, he said, would be to offer 200 million
acres a year and let the companies select what they want to bid on. But
Ipe said the second proposal was less likely to be adopted by Watt.
lOvisiton) Since the first federal offshore oil and gas leases were offered in
fewer ti; only 42.8 million acres have been leased. Only about 22 million
p. acres are now under lease to oil and gas exploration and production
appeared fP rms -
untry n® When Cecil Andrus was running the Interior Department under
ng andr (resident Carter, the oil industry complained bitterly about a lockup
of public resources and government’s alleged refusal to offer the most
■attractive leasing areas.
But Watt’s spokesman gave much of the credit to objections from
some oil companies for the decision to rework the secretary’s plan .
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DuPont, Conoco
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United Press International
fighting J WILMINGTON, Del. — DuPont Co. said Monday it has signed an
on the i|ag reernent with Conoco Inc. under which it could acquire all the stock
lay affair gi ant oil and coal combine for a total of $7.3 billion in stock and
showed : ^b-
500 pecf DuPont said it would make an immediate offer of $87.50 a share for
seavy rai ^ percent of Conoco’s outstanding stock.
H'cccl thef ^bis tops the $73-a-share offer for Conoco of Joseph E. Seagram &
forthefinc Sons, the U.S. subsidiary of Seagram Ltd. of Montreal, which Conoco
;as resid ^ as been fiercely resisting.
munitvstfc Seagram has sued Conoco charging it with extensive violations of
,> U.S. securities laws and flagrant dereliction to stockholders.
•omingut but U.S. District Judge Edward Weinfeld in New York denied
nilw iy Fe Seagram’s motion for a temporary restraining order which sought to
‘ t|i ( r , bar Conoco from taking certain steps, including a threatened liquida-
t nin tion of the company, to bar the Seagram bid.
v t() a In addition to the cash offer, DuPont Chairman Edward G. Jefferson
said Dupont will offer 1.6 shares of its common stock for each remain-
i ing share of Conoco. But the agreement gives DuPont the option of
15.9 million unissued Conoco shares for $87.50 a share. The stock swap
k's abow P <,rt ' on °f the deal is expected to be tax-free. Conoco has a total of 86
k l( \ t p, million shares outstanding.
, | i Jefferson said Conoco would continue to operate completely auton-
. S i! omously. Although DuPont is the acquiring company, it is not quite as
\ large as Conoco, which had $18.3 billion in revenues last year against
I $13.7 billion for DuPont.
' >d At Hi! Conoco is the ninth largest U.S. oil company and the nation’s second
" ( , ( | largest coal company. DuPont is one of the world’s largest chemical
1X1 ‘ u ^ ; companies.
i v rt! Tbe Seagram offer amounted to $2.5 billion for 35 million shares or
1 I* |, about 41 percent of Conoco.
11 ( / A special meeting of DuPont shareholders will be called in mid-
August to vote on the deal. DuPont will have to borrow $3 billion to
‘y , , (I complete the deal. Conoco stockholders also must vote on the deal.
, scnec u Tj ie j r meeting will be held after regulatory approval and other formali-
for a t j es hgj-g Been ironed out.
rks display!; ,
Congress faced with fast
approaching deadline
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan is put
ting the pressure on Congress to produce an
acceptable tax cut bill before the month-long con
gressional recess scheduled to begin Aug. 3.
With Congress due to return Wednesday from
its extended Fourth of July holiday, both houses
will have less than four weeks to pass separate
bills and reconcile their differences before send
ing a tax package to the White House.
The Senate, with its Republican majority,
should have little trouble.
The Senate Finance Committee has com
pleted action on the administration’s tax proposal,
including the president’s 25 percent across-the-
board tax cut for individuals, spread over 33
months.
Chairman Bob Dole, R-Kan., expects to bring
the bill to the Senate floor around July 15 for
reasonably prompt approval.
The rub, however, will come in the House.
House Democrats, working on their own tax
cut alternative, planned to get down to business
this week in the Ways and Means Committee,
where they hold a commanding 23-12 edge.
The Democratic alternative — which would
cut tax rates by an average 15 percent over 21
months — is assured approval by the panel.
The Democrats target their cuts more toward
taxpayers in the $15,000 to $50,000 income range
by boosting the standard deduction and increas
ing the earned income credit for the working
poor.
A committee staff member indicated the panel
would need about two weeks to complete work on
the tax bill. So far, it has approved a package of
business tax cuts and savings incentives.
Although a giant conference committee still
has to put together a final budget cut bill, the
House and Senate measures are similiar.
Both reduce spending in fiscal 1982 by about
$38 billion. The bills also would cut spending in
the 1983 and 1984 fiscal years, although not
enough to balance the budget in 1984 as Reagan
wanted.
A major difference is the approach the two
bodies take to cutting about $1 billion in Medicaid
funds. The Senate took a more rigid approach,
placing a legal limit on the amount the federal
government could contribute to Medicaid.
The House rejected the idea of a legal cap
although it reduced funds almost as much as the
Senate. The House method would allow funds to
be increased if necessary.
Both bills tighten food stamp eligibility, cut
ting about $1.8 billion; accept a watered-down
version of Reagan’s block grant proposals; reduce
education funds, including college student loans;
and cut school lunch funds, housing programs and
a variety of domestic social services.
And the Senate resumes action on the Justice
Department authorization bill, still stymied by a
filibuster against a sweeping anti-busing amend
ment.
There are indications that more and more
liberal senators are ready to join Sen. Lowell
Weicker’s one-man filibuster against an amend
ment that would bar the Justice Department from
ordering busing beyond the school nearest a stu
dent’s home and forbid the court from creating
plans that take students by bus more than 10
miles or 30 minutes.
NY bridge
Cables sag, bridge closes
United Press International
NEW YORK — The old nursery rhyme about London Bridge falling
down perhaps should also include the Brooklyn Bridge. For the
second time in a week, the 98-year-old span had to be closed because of
trouble with one of its suspension cables.
Police shut down the span Sunday for two hours because one of the
cables involved in the incident a week ago sagged and authorities
thought it would snap.
In the earlier incident, a man on the pedestrian walkway of the span
was injured when he was struck by the cable that snapped, prompting
authorities to close the bridge for vehicular traffic for several hours.
The walkway has remained closed.
The snapped cable also struck several other similar lines when it
fell. One of those lines was involved in the incident Sunday, author
ities said.
They said the cable snapped because it was corroded with age. The
diagonally-hung line, one of hundreds on the span, was originally
intended to stabilize the bridge in crosswinds.
The bridge, which connects lower Manhattan with Brooklyn
Heights, was opened in 1883. It is 1,597 feet long.
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