moriday, cpril 4, 1077
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Zarb warns of continued gas waste
Dy Scott Whitcomb
Americans will continue to waste gasoline until the
price of fuel is increased to its true market value, the
former head of the Federal Energy Administration said
Friday.
Former energy "czar" Frank Zarb told a press confer
ence in the Nebruka Union that natural gas is priced 50
per cent below its true market value.
Zarb was in Lincoln as the featured speaker for the
UNL Engineering Week (E-Week) 1977 convocation Fri
day afternoon.
He said the demand for natural gas, "the cleanest, most
natural source of energy " has increased more than 10 per
- E-Week open house Friday and Saturday fea
tured projects and displays by UNL and some high
school students. Projects ranged from the simple
to the complex and drew visitors from across the
state to the Nebraska Engineering Center.
cent a year since the 1960s, slightly higher than the in
flation rate.
"Americans will use and waste more gasoline when
. more is produced," Zarb said, calling such waste "the
formula for an ultimate energy shortage."
Hit peak
By 1982 the natural gas industry will hit its peak and
then start to decline, Zarb said.
He said the proposed $1,000 federal tax on new
gas-guzzling automobiles would only be a revenue raiser,
but would not have the desired impact in curbing the
energy problem.
Zarb, who described himself as "mildly optimistic and
impatient about the energy problem, predicted "the next
big blip on the radar screen" to be the inability to deliver
regional electricity during peak periods of economic
activity.
Zarb told a packed house in the Unioii Ballroom for
the convocation that America will have to decrease con
sumption and increase domestic production of natural gas
"without damaging the country's economic growth."
He said price controls on gas have not only damaged
the value of oil and gas., "but every other element of the
nation's energy."
Steps outlined
Steps which Zarb said America must take to curb the
energy crisis include:
-Conservation, which he said "we must weave into
part of thinking of our everyday lives."
-Increased production of oil and natural gas, both of
which he said are declining at 8 to 12 per cent a year.
- -Increased production of coal, which is capable of
being doubled by 1986.
-Increased production of nuclear power, which must
double over the next 10 years or energy conservation
"will simply not get done because the world is running
out of oil," he said.
Solar energy should represent five per cent of energy
output by 1995, Zarb said, but added that expenditures
for solar energy research are being "dragged down because
of competition with the increasing price of natural gas."
Eceaosiic merits '
He said solar production of hot water has economic
merits, but that solar energy is a long way from replacing
oil as energy.
He said America has been moving in the right direction
since the first half of 1975. He added, however, that
the failure of Congress to pass three energy bills intro
duced during the first half of 1975 has given America 60
per cent more energy problems than it should have.
He said it will take 10 to 15 years to reduce energy
consumption, but added that people should not be dis
couraged because it takes time to implement policies.
When asked about the future of Nebraska's pet energy
project, gasohol, Zarb said gasohol will make a contri
bution if adequate supplies of grain (used to produce
gasohol) can be found.
He added, however, that even if gasohol becomes a
viable substitute, "it won't take over the main stream of "
the American system."
Photographs by
Kevin Higley and
Ted Kirk
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