fricJay, march 13, 1981 lincoln, ncbraska vol. 106, no. 45 .41 O fo Commoner: Oil companies foster dependence liy Kim li;ichiy;i ;iihI Bel h iicaririck The I ' 1 1 i l e c I Slates' creeping dependence on foreign oil is caused by the U.S. oil companies, environmentalist Harry Commoner said Thursday night. Commoner, who has written several hooks on energy and politics and was the Citizen's Party I'M) presidential candidate, spoke to about X00 persons in the Nebraska Union for a ( IPC Talks and Topics lecture. 'Sri x1i !lf IP My "renewable energy" Commoner said he refers to sola i eneigy (which includes wind, sun, hydroelectric power and grain alcohol) or breeder reaction (fission) nuclear energy. Hut hieeder reaclois are a long way off, he said. The United Stales could be manufacturing ethyl alcohol, something that Hiail is doing now. Hy ISS4 Hiail will piodiice enough ethyl alcohol to inn all of Hs cars, he said. "Hul we're not doing this because maximum piofil tor the stockholder's investments is the ciiteiia foi ihe decision inakeis." Coinmonei said. At a piess conference earliei in the day. Commoner suggested that the United Stales w ipe out its whole mil itary budget and divert the money to mass tiansporl ation and urban development. "Just think of the insanity of putting billions of dollars into a rail system to carry MX missiles around the southwest desert for no constructive purpose when that money could be used to run cities and keep them from deteriorating,'" he said. Commoner asked reporters if Reagan won in Ne braska. "He did? You'll regret it. You'll regret it when he guts the agricultural programs and when he guts alcohol (fuel) programs. If I were a Nebraska farmer. I'd want to take my vote back. Nebraska will regie! electing Reagan. So will the rest of us." Commoner said research clone at Ins Ceniei for the Hiology of Natural Systems has shown that alcohol pro duction can be done in ways which will not cut into the use ol grain for food bill will give agiiculture lull use of Iced giains and offci a surplus loi alcohol synthesis. At a lectuie given as part of the Architectural College's Hyde Speaker Series. Coinniouei predicted drastic changes would be made to incorporate solai eneigy. bill he said it must come as an organied effort, not the "heller skeltei plan we now have." "The economy ought to be run tor the benefit ol the people lalhei than for the benefit of those who are wealth) . "Reagan's philosophy is that the economy grows by macho male entrepreneurs taking economic 'risks' by tak ing dollais from the poor, giving it back to these macho types so they can rebuild the economy and give jobs back to the poor. "That won't work. What this is is anarchy for the rich. We've elected an anarchist who's dismantling the parts of the government which get in his way." Photo by Jon Natvig Barry Commoner lie said American oil companies shifted oil exploration efforts abroad in the 1950s after they had fixed the cost of oil in the United States. He said it became increasingly ?xpensive to drill for domestic oil and this decreased the profits made from the oil once it reached the market. I:ach time a barrel of oil is taken out of the ground, the next barrel of oil will be more difficult (more expensive) to drill for. be explained. Soon the energy it takes to ex tract the oil will exceed its value. In the 1920s and '30s there was a glut of oil on the market, he said. The oil companies were upset by this, so the Texas legislature set quotas on oil production so it would equal the demand. With the prices fixed by the oil companies. Commer explained, anil as oil production be came more expensive, the companies' profits decreased. U.S. oil companies then went abroad where, once again, it cost pennies to drill for oil, w hich was sold at the fixed high prices. Commoner said this information is from the National Petroleum Council's report, U.S. l:'ncrgy Out look. Commoner said the reason the cost of oil production escalates, which is the essence of energy crisis, is that oil is a nonrenewable energy source. The United States needs to find a source of renewable energy now, in order to prevent further inflation caused by the cost of energy production, he said. "When former President Jimmy Carter said. 'We're running out of oil' that's true. It's also irrelevant. We've been running out of oil since 1X59 when the first hole was drilled." Commoner said. J fx JlW I Photo by Mitch Hrdlicka The Lincoln High bench agonizes as the final seconds John Matzke (12), Assistant Coach Kevin Albers. tick away in a 64-56 double overtime loss to Omaha Head Coach Alden Johnson, and Assistant Coach Benson in the opening round Class A game of the Bill Zuspan. state basketball tournament. Seated left to right: Run-off election results threatened by complaints liy I). Trie kircher I wo complaints that could invalidate some i osi ills ol the laich II nui-olT elec tion will be ruled on In the Student Court on Apnl I . I'm Higgins and Steve McMahon both of whom were piesidential candidates complained that Rick Mockler and Dan Wedckind the ASUN president-elect and first vice president-elect, respectively vio lated an act passed by ASUN that pro hibits the use of "ASUN facilities" for campaign purposes. Mockler and Wedckind are alleged to have used an ASUN copier for campaign purposes. In the complaint. McMahon wrote that Mark Hirschfeld. the ASUN first vice president, observed the alleged violation. The complaint asks the court to re quire the electoral commission to de clare Mockler and Wedekind ineligible to hold office or any appointed position in ASUN" for one year. Higgins. McMahon and Tom Vergith filed the same complaint with the Mectoral Commission on March 9. but the commis sion decided it lacked jurisdiction to rule on the complaint. The commission advised Higgins and McMahon to take the com plaint to the Student Court. "I guess I don't have any other purpose than to see justice upheld," Higgins said. "We're just following through to get the tnith out." Higgins didn't know whether another election would be required if the court ruled there was a violation. "I really don't have any comment on the thing." McMahon said. Vergith may place his name on the complaint, he said. In the other complaint. Willie Watters. McMahon' s former campaign manager, complained that the electoral commission acted wrongly when it declined to rule on the "use of ASUN facilities" complaint. Watters said that, after the commission's action, he studied ASUN bylaws and de cided it should have acted on the com plaint. "My suit, really and in fact, is against Kim Weiland." Watters said. Weiland is the .ASUN electoral commissioner. "She is the election commission." Watters said. "When she snaps her fingers. most of the others line up." Walters' complaint asks thai the com mission apologize publicly . that the run-off election be declared "null and void." and that the future commission members be aware of their duties and "possess a desire to fulfill their responsibilities." Watters said he didn't know if a ruline to in his favor would require another run-off or if ASUN would have to hold another general election. "I'm trying to encourage them to tell die electoral commission to be more prudent." Watters said. The electoral commission has three days to reply to the complaint, but Weiland said it probably would ask for an extension. "We still stand by the decision that we made," she said. "It looks really obvious that it's just an attempt to call the elec tion." "We thought it was not in our jurisdic tion," Glenn Poppert. an electoral commis sion member, said. The court dismissed on March 11 re quests to temporarily restrain the commis sion from counting the votes and releasing the results. Another complaint to be beard April 1 involves Dan Renn's charge that Mike Krai ville illegally removed campaign posters. After Renn presented the complaint to the commission, the commission brought the charge to the student court. The complaint asks that Kratville not be allowed to hold any ASUN office or posi tion for one y ear. Mockler and Wedekind were not avail able for comment. mc?n- ffriday The Smaller the Better: People earning degrees to teach elementary school appear to favor the lower grades, or "little people" Page 6 Oriental Vision: Visiting artist Li Shan describes his native China and how it inspires his work Page 8 Trotter Tradition: Some of its comedy may be the same, but other aspects of this basketball team have changed Page 10