Speech #910087766

The anticipated fuel shortages and accompanying price hikes are in the economic forecast for New Englanders for the 10th successive winter because of the mandatory oil import control program established by the Eisenhower administration in 1959. giving American oil producers a virtual monopoly in the domestic market. The cost of the inequitable oil import program to the Nation is measured in billions of dollars. Newspaper accounts last week of a study by the Interior Departments Bureau of Mines indicated that the cost of the oil quota system to consumers could reach $7 billion a year by 1975 and more than $8 billion a year by 1980. The study also predicted that crude oil prices could drop from $3.20 to $2 a barrel if quotas on oil imports are removed. Mr.