European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 23, 1973, Darmstadt, Hesse                                An a sticker meant four Gallons a week at Start. By Mike Feinsilber United press International you were Given an a b or c sticker to display in the right hand Corner of your Windshield depending upon your need for gasoline. Naturally enough no red blooded american wanted to admit his driving was so plea sure motivated that he rated Only a. So anyone who could come up with any excuse at All trooped Down to convince his local opa officials that he War ranted a b or c. Soon nearly half of the nation s 28 million Auto owners had wangled a b or c. That was gasoline rationing Back in world War ii As recalled by Richard r. Lingeman in his 1970 Book Don t you know there s a War on an a Coupon entitled a Driver to four Gallons of Gas a week enough the government figured for 60 Miles of driving. Later this was reduced to three and for a Bleak period of 1943 to Only two Gallons. War workers who drove in car pools were Given b stickers and persons with War essential jobs like doctors or Farmers got c stickers. Truckers got t stickers and. Unlimited mileage. Clergymen and policemen won unlimited gasoline with x stickers. When coupons were first issued More than 200 Mem Bers of Congress unashamedly asked for and were Given extra rations. Rationing started in 17 Eastern states in May 1942 because Ger Man submarines were sinking the tankers which normally supplied the East coast. The pipelines from Texas had not yet been built. On dec. 1, 1942, rationing was made nationwide. Some people Lingeman wrote considered it an exercise in official sadomasochism whose Only purpose was to instill in the american people a proper mood of wartime  1 o conserve gasoline and War scarce rubber the govern ment imposed a nationwide Speed limit of 35 Miles an hour. Worse yet it banned pleasure driving altogether. Even the Fel Low with his a sticker was sup posed to devote his paltry ration to such driving As necessary shopping or trips to Church funerals doctors jobs. The ban on pleasure driving was lifted in september 1943, but not before agents of the office of Price administration Opachich administered Gas ration ing had lifted the Coupon books of motorists whose cars were spotted at racetracks or stadiums or parked outside night clubs. Criminals saw the Opportunity in All this. Counterfeit rationing coupons sold for As much As 50 cents each. In Washington coupons Worth 20 million Gallons were stolen from a government warehouse. The government Esti mated that Between one million Gallons of gasoline a week and 2.5 million a Day were sold illegally. Fifteen per cent of All c coupons in circulation were said to be fakes. 1 Here were salutary effects too. The Highway death toll plummeted. People rediscovered walking and bicycling Al though bicycles were sold Only to those who could produce a certificate of necessity and the shortage of hides led to shoe rationing. Gasoline rationing ended aug. 1, 1945 just before the end of the War. Throughout the land was heard the cry fill her up if come Iwho gets squeezed by Edward Cowan new York times at a suburban pizza parlor a woman with three school age children a husband and two cars was wondering whether the Energy squeeze would disrupt her family s  Public spirited person who is Active in local politics she said she was willing to make sacrifices. Trouble was she said there was no bus service to her sprawling subdivision of $60,000 Homes near Wash , she could double or triple up with neighbors for trips to the shopping Center but you have to remember everything you need she worried. Still if there is gasoline rationing would she be entitled to enough gasoline to drive her 13-year-old daughter to the orthodontist a half dozen Miles away in her nine seat eight Cylinder station Wagon her husband a lawyer who handles insurance claims wondered whether he would get enough gasoline to drive to out lying towns As his cases May require in his eight Cylinder intermediate size Sedan. In the face of a deepening fuel Short age such Are the worries of an affluent suburban generation of americans barely old enough to remember the gasoline shortages and rationing of world War ii. For decades the . Has been building an Auto entered High Energy society and suddenly because of Arab embargoes it appears that there will not be enough fuel to keep All cars running Homes and schools warm or at least As hot As they used to be electric generators spinning and factories humming. How bad the shortage will be is not certain. Senior administration officials say that by december the loss of imported crude Oil and refinery products is Likely to reach two million barrels a Day and by january or february it could hit three Mil lion this against consumption of More than 17 million barrels a Day a figure that represents about half of All the Energy used by the . The Energy administration strategy is to keep production and employment up by putting the squeeze on personal and com Mercial Neon signs store heating Energy consumption. President Nixon already has asked the Public to turn the thermostat Down by 6 degrees to achieve a daytime average of 68 degrees. Privately senior Energy planners see no reason Why the target cannot be dropped to the Low 60s, although they recognize that compliance is Likely to weaken As the goal becomes More ambitious. The Federal mandatory Oil allocation program adopted even before the october War in the Middle East provides a mechanism for rationing heating Oil supplies. Ultimately the retailer with Uncle Sam con trolling his supplies and looking Over his shoulder will ration the Householder. L ars and gasoline present another prob Lem. The administration is debating whether rationing or a big increase in the Federal excise tax is the Best Way to curtail gasoline consumption which runs about 6.6 million barrels a Day. At the moment the Odds favor rationing As deeply distasteful As it is to virtually exc Pooe 14 the stars and stripes Friday senior official in the administration is hateful in the main because it in creating a Large bureaucracy up 00 persons according to one Esti that is Likely to be around for a yme and that will make decisions of a the lives of millions of americans. He end of 1972, there were 97 million Iger cars in this country almost one very other Man woman and child. Were also 407,000 buses and 21 Mil sucks. 11970 census found 18.6 million House had Access to two cars and 3.5 Mil households had Access to three cars. Census Bureau counts As households by conventional families but persons alone and unrelated persons living or. Ome of the Multi car households unmarried working people sharing Jents or houses to spread the available Gaso among 97 million cars poses aging practical and moral prob gals believe it will be a far More jobs task than during world War ii there were Only 28 million passenger and people Felt they were helping the it the  Bumbly As in world War ii there be a Basic ration plus extra Gallons Ose who Merit them. Having said he questions and dilemmas commend fast. A Basic ration be awarded to each  family each licensed Driver have one car because we think it s y irresponsible to have More than said a Man who lives with his work e close to downtown Washington. Both use the car. If they re going to on the basis of cars i m going out juy some Little second hand thing. I even use  commuter lives one mile from a bus  once an hour is his driving to nonessential will he be Able to get a i the bus or even a place to stand giving a 13-year-old girl to the Ortho it grounds for extra gasoline / and Linda live on the same Street drives a four Cylinder car and gets Les to the gallon. Sally drives an Cylinder Model and gets nine Miles to lion. Should they be Given the same usury Secretary George p. Shultz ads the resistance to rationing with administration raised another prob e other Day according to a Treasury Man. Shultz wondered whether an Jred inarticulate person with a be Ste need for extra gasoline a Man two jobs for example would be. P Cope successfully with the red tap appeals procedure. Kelly and not least there is the Ion of whether gasoline Coupon be nontransferable As in world or should be exchangeable. I Hills believe that if people with a coupons can sell or give them to who want them the rationing a will work More smoothly and old total consumption to the desired May be one reason to think that ingenuity most americans will Asoline rationing if it comes less i searing experience. The latest Esti Are that personal gasoline con Ion needs to be Cut by Only 20 per that Means real financial trouble for 3.and drive ins and maybe the ski but it hardly sounds like austerity is people. November 23/ 1973 nuclear Plant capacity no. Kilowatts operable 37 21,687,400 a being built 57 51,893,000 planned 89 95,622,000 reactors ordered total 169.202,400 puerto Rico source . Atomic Energy commission sept. 30, 1973 by the 1980s nuclear Power is expected to deliver 20 per cent of nation s electrical Power. Not comeback by Aline Mosby United press International thanks to the Oil and Energy crisis nuclear Energy is making a comeback. Many new nuclear Energy plants Are to go into operation in the 1980s, says a report from the organization for economic cooperation and development. Although the Recd report does not name the politically Touchy Oil crisis As responsible for plucking nuclear Energy out of obscurity Recd officials in Paris say the Arab Oil squeeze is prompting nations to seek other Means of Energy so that they no longer will be prey to Oil shutoff. France was the first nation to announce on the heels of the Middle East War that by 1977 it would build Only nuclear Power plants to produce electricity giving up All conventional plants using Oil or other fuels. France has rushed five nuclear Power plants into construction since the Arab states began to raise Oil. Prices. Three More plants Are planned for 1974. Recd officials say so Many countries Are expected to join France that there will not be enough uranium available As atomic fuel unless nations launch emergency programs to find new uranium deposits. The Recd report says the non communist world uranium production was 25,500 tons in 1972, with present resources. This could be pushed to 65,000 tons by1978. But the Recd expects demand for uranium to fuel nuclear Energy plants to hit at least four times the present production by 1985. Because if. Takes about eight years to get uranium Ore out of the ground and processed after it is discovered it is essential that Steps be taken to increase exploration for uranium the report says. One official of the Recd nuclear Energy Agency says unfortunately nuclear Energy can be no immediate solution to the Oil crisis but it can be a Long Range  in the Early 1950s the world planned to use nuclear Energy in an euphoria Over its discovery. But the High Cost of mining and other fuels cooled the nuclear idea in the late 50s and 60s. So did objections from environmentalists Over alleged pollution from nuclear Energy plants. Uranium production has been coasting in the non communist world s biggest uranium producing countries the United states Canada South Africa an France. Australia closed two plants. Canada closed four and the Canadian government kept the uranium mine Industry going after the collapse of the uranium markets in the 50s and 60s," Recd says. South Africa had 26 uranium mines and 17 Ore processing plants in 1960. By 1965 they were Cut to 12 producing mines an seven plants. When the Arab Oil producing countries began asking Price boosts three years ago the nuclear picture began to change. Uranium mining increased with three new Ore processing plants opened in 1972. Japan opened a Plant in 1970 and Australia is reopening one in 1975. France in 1972 suggested that the common Market countries Chip in to build an Ore processing Plant and this november France renewed its proposal. From the mountains of Korea to the Rocky Hills of Greece government sponsored prospectors in 31 countries Are drilling for uranium. But the Recd says explorations Are not increasing  currently there is an Over Supply of uranium because the demand is Low. However Recd predicts a shortage and unstable Market in the 1980s unless governments and mining companies Start planning for the Oil less nuclear Energy Boom now. Page 15