NEW YORK, Dec. 29, Reuter: The United States must impose a stiff tax on imported fuel if the nation is to escape a repeat of the 1973 oil crisis, the New York Times said today in an editorial.

“Unless Washington stops focusing on the prices at the gas (petrol) pumps and starts looking at the prices and dependency just over the horizon, the United States will be in deep trouble all over again,” the newspaper said.

Lower prices following the collapse of OPEC unity last year brought increased consumption in a nation that had earlier seemed to learn the lesson of conservation, the newspaper said.

But it said conservation is needed more than ever now that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has finally agreed to a unified policy on a modest price increase, even if some experts believe it won’t last.

“Unless Washington sounds the alarm and gets moving the long-term conservation and production programs, the Sheikhs will be back in charge of our economic destiny, maybe within a decade”, the newspaper said.

Article extracted from this publication >>  January 2, 1987