Tuesday, October 7,1986/The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
&M prof: Oil import fee plan
backfire, raise fuel prices
By Jo Ann Able
Staff Writer
Vhile the drop in crude oil prices
sparked support from many
and federal officials for an oil
ort fee, a Texas A&M account-
jrofessor warns that the plan
jackfire.
Larry Crumbley, whose re-
ch focuses on the energy indus-
says the fee has a definite down-
ixth District Rep. Joe Barton is
nsoring a bill for a five-year oil
ortfee that sets a target price for
oil at $22 a barrel. If the market
price is lower than that target price,
as it is today, the fee would be the
difference between the market price
and the target price. If the market
price is higher than that $22 target
price, there would be no fee.
Barton says the purpose of the bill
is to set a price level for oil that
would keep American producers in
business until natural market forces
bring the price back up.
“I don’t think we should just stand
by and let the OPEC cartel drive our
Texas oil producers out of business,”
lectronic bug found
n campaign office
AUSTIN (AP) — Federal and
ate authorities Monday were in
stigating the discovery of an
ectronic bug in the office of Re-
blican gubernatorial candidate
Clements’ campaign strateg-
Our agents verified it is an op-
able, clandestine listening devi-
!," said David Wells, spokesman
r the Texas Department of
|iblic Safety.
“We will be conducting an in-
|stigation in cooperation with
le FBI to determine if it was
ted to illegally intercept commu
tations and who is responsible,”
'ells said.
Clements campaign manager
eorge Bayoud said the device
as found by private investiga-
rs Sunday night behind a pic-
re in the office of Karl Rove,
lements’ chief strategist in the
ice against incumbent Demo-
aticGov. Mark White.
Neither Bayoud nor Rove said
ey knew who placed the device
[Rove’s office.
“We don’t know,” Rove said.
k may never know. I do know
for a fact, certain, who benefits
most from the kind of knowledge
you’d get from listening in on my
telephone conversations. That’s
our political opposition.”
A spokesman for White said di
recting any allegation at the gov
ernor’s re-election campaign
would be bizarre and incredible.
"If they found a bug, that’s a
serious matter,” said spokesman
Mark McKinnon. “But if they’re
blaming us, it’s a bunch of bull.”
“I’m here with all the key peo
ple of this campaign. There was
absolutely no knowledge of it.”
McKinnon noted that Clem
ents’ staff announced the discov
ery only hours before the candi
dates scheduled statewide
televised debate.
“I think it’s clear this seems to
shift the focus of the debate,” he
said.
Clements officials said they de
cided to hire investigators after
details on planned purchases of
television time and discussions
about hiring Lee Atwater, a polit
ical operative for Vice President
George Bush leaked out.
Barton says. “They’re not going to
keep the prices down at the levels
they are today for a very long period
of time. Once they get our people
out of business then they would al
low the price to go back up when we
wouldn’t be in a position to do any
thing about it.”
Crumbley says propping up de
pressed oil prices would result in
higher fuel prices for consumers at
the gas pump. He says the current
drop in consumer transportation
costs should have an impact on the
inflation rate that would benefit the
entire economy.
Barton says that although an im
port fee would cause slightly higher
gasoline prices, he thinks Texans
would be willing to spend an extra
15 or 20 cents a gallon to maintain
jobs and oil exploration in Texas
and ensure as much domestic pro
duction as possible.
“It’s kind of like the oil filter com
mercial,” Barton says. “You can pay
a little bit now or pay a lot later,”
Crumbley says he believes the fee
would be unevenly distributed on re
gions within the United States that
depend more heavily on oil, espe
cially agricultural areas, which cur
rently are enjoying a decrease in the
costs of fuel and fertilizer; and do
mestic manufacturers of plastic,
glass, cement, paper, steel, textiles,
chemicals and paint.
Barton says the bill contains no
exemptions, so everyone would pay
the same price for petroleum-based
products. If Congress wanted to
make a special exception for agricul
tural users, Barton says it could be
handled in another piece of legis
lation.
“But in order to work, the import
fee would have to be simple and easy
to administer,” Barton says. “I
wouldn’t want to begin making a lot
of exceptions and exemptions in this
bill because it would make it too
cumbersome.”
Crumbley says another ill effect of
an oil import fee is the creation of
large new administrative bureaucra
cies which may cause significant
market distortions.
Barton says his import fee bill, un
like the price control systems of the
early 1970s, has no quotas to equalize
prices. The fee would be adminis
tered by customs officials at the
point of entry, he says.
“We already have adequate ad
ministrative personnel to check the
tankers that are coming in and how
many barrels of oil they have,” Bar
ton says. “It would be a simple pro
cedure to multiply the number of
barrels times the fee and remit the
money to the treasury.”
Crumbley says he is worried by
the fact that when oil was at $22 a
barrel a couple of years ago the in
dustry was flat on its back — there
was no drilling even then.
“Now they want to bring it (the
market price) back to $22,” Crumb
ley says. “If it didn’t help then, how’s
it going to help now? It would bring
in revenue and help the deficit, but
I’m not sure whaf it would do for
drillers.”
Barton says he has spoken to hun
dreds of people in the oil industry
who told him that $22 is the price
Three voting sites listed for
freshman class elections
Voting for Tuesday’s freshman
elections will be from 9 a.m. to 6
p.m. at these polling sites: the
main lounge of the Memorial
Student Center, in front of the
Sterling C. Evans Library and
outside Sbisa Dining Hall.
In the event of rain, the Sbisa
site will be moved to the A-l
lounge.
Freshmen must present a cur
rent Texas A&M identification
card at the polling site in order to
vote.
Congressional candidates
to address Student Senate
Congressional candidate Pete
Geren and a representative for
U.S. Rep. Joe Barton will speak to
the Student Senate at its meeting
Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in 204
Harrington.
Geren and Barton will face
each other for the U.S. 6th Dis
trict congressional seat in an elec
tion Nov. 4.
Geren and Barton’s represen
tative each will speak five minutes
and then answer questions from
the senate, said Miles Bradshaw,
speaker of the senate.
The senate invited Geren and
Barton to speak because it be
lieves students have the right to
be informed of the candidates’
views concerning higher educa
tion, Bradshaw said.
In other action, a resolution
calling for A&M to divest its in
terests in South Africa will be in
troduced to the senate, Bradshaw
said.
He also said a bill may be put
on emergency that, if passed,
would form a student-faculty
committee to oversee the Univer
sity Police Department’s budget.
level that could keep the industry in
business until the market recovers.
“It would keep domestic stripper
wells in production, which are the
wells that produce less than 10 bar
rels a day,” Barton says. “It’s a suffi
cient price to do some exploration
activity, to keep some people out
working on the seismic crews and
the land crews, doing some wildcat-
ting.”
It won’t create a huge boom, he
says, but it should increase the num
ber of drilling rigs operating today
from about 700 back to about 1,500
or 2,000.
Clements, White report campaign finances
AUSTIN (AP) — Republican challenger Bill
Clements has about $152,000 on hand in his
campaign accounts, while Democratic Gov. Mark
White has close to $2 million, spokesmen for the
campaigns said Monday.
Monday was a filing deadline for state-re
quired campaign expenditure reports.
White’s finances were reported in a series of
documents related to several campaign commit
tees. Shannon Ratliff, White’s campaign trea
surer, said the bottom line shows White has
raised about $8 million and spent $6 million.
“I think it’s gone very well,” Ratliff said. “You
are correct to perceive that this has not been an
ideal year for raising money.
“I’m sure we still are going to be trying to raise
more. It seems like, based on (Clements’) media .
. . he’s buying everything he can buy. He’s appar
ently relying on paid media.”
John Weaver, Clements’ deputy press secre
tary, said the GOP candidate and ex-governor
has raised $6,260,000 and spent $6,110,000.
“Our fund-raising is ongoing and it’s strong,”
Weaver said.
Freshmen & Sophomores
RE: YearBook Photos
Photos for freshmen and
sophomores will be
taken until Oct. 31 at AR
Photography II at 707
Texas Ave. (across from
the A&M Polo Field).
Do it now and avoid the lines