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The Failure of Project Independence
No full textThe embargo by OPEC not only affected the United States, but has also had profound effects on world history. A vast, worldwide economic recession, marked by a combination of rising unemployment and rising inflation, otherwise known as stagflation, was caused by it. The surges in worldwide oil prices also contributed, later on, to the debt crisis of the 1980s, which still surrounds many Third World nation-states today. The oil embargo also led the United States to reevaluate its own energy production and consumption needs, in order to try to understand how a group of relatively poor nation-states in the Middle East could wreak such havoc on the mightiest economy in the world.THE FAILURE OF PROJECT INDEPENDENCE
STEVE BILJAN '02
FALL 2001
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN AMERICAN POLITICS
POLITICAL SCIENCE THESIS
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
THE ENERGY CRISIS 2
THE ADVENT OF PROJECT INDEPENDENCE 3
ANALYSIS OF THE SHORT TERM AIMS OF PROJECT INDEPENDENCE 5
Restrictions on Public and Private Consumption of Energy 5
Reduction of Speed Limits on Highways 7
Naval Petroleum Reserves 8
Daylight Saving Time 9
ANALYSIS OF THE LONG TERM AIMS OF PROJECT INDEPENDENCE 10
Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline 10
Deregulation of Natural Gas 12
Standards for the Surface Mining of Coal 13
An Energy Research and Development Administration 14
Deepwater Ports 16
A Department of Energy 16
THE PROBLEM OF INFLATION 17
THE CONGRESS 18
THE EFFECT OF WATERGATE 20
THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE TIMETABLE 22
CONSERVATION: THE MISSED PRIORITY? 23
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CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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INTRODUCTION
On October 6, 1973, Yorn Kippur, the holiest day of the year for people of Jewish
faith, Egyptian and Syrian armed forces, with assistance from other Arab nation-states,
attacked Israel over territorial disputes stemming from the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. The
Y om Kippur War only lasted seventeen days, but its effects on the international energy
marketplace have been felt ever since.
One of the tactics used by the Arab world during the war was an oil embargo
placed by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on
nation-states that assisted Israel in its defense. (OPEC was, and still is, an organization
comprised mostly of states from the Middle East and Persian Gulf area.) This embargo
was imposed on October 18, 1973, and caused the price ofa barrel of crude oil to rise
nearly 400 percent in a span of two-and-a-half months, from a price of 11.65 by the end of the year (Congress and the Nation: Vol. lV201). It remained in
effect until the following March, when it was replaced with a higher price for crude oil.
The embargo by OPEC not only affected the United States, but has also had
profound effects on world history. A vast, worldwide economic recession, marked by a
combination of rising unemployment and rising inflation, otherwise known as stagflation,
was caused by it. The surges in worldwide oil prices also contributed, later on, to the
debt crisis of the 1980s, which still surrounds many Third World nation-states today. The
oil embargo also led the United States to reevaluate its own energy production and
consumption needs, in order to try to understand how a group of relatively poor nationstates
in the Middle East could wreak such havoc on the mightiest economy in the world.
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THE ENERGY CRISIS
For some time prior to 1973, energy experts and politicians had been warning of
impending shortages in the supply of energy. The United States, as the world's largest
economy, was also the world's largest consumer of energy. In 1971, the country
consumed 5.24 billion barrels of crude oil, of which 1.37 billion were imported (Mancke
14). In the National Petroleum Council's U.S. Energy Outlook: An Initial Appraisal,
1971-1985, the percentage of imported oil in relation to total consumption was estimated
to rise from 22 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 1975, and increasing another 8 percent
for every five years after (Mancke 14). In 1973, the nation's proved oil reserves were
valued at 36.82 billion barrels (Mancke 14). In the mid-1960s executives within the oil
industry began alerting the U.S. government ofincreasingly difficult negotiations and
relations that they were having with members of OPEC (Maddox 11). OPEC was
becoming more and more hostile to these private, Western corporations. In 1968, the
U.S. State Department told foreign producers of oil that the United States would soon
reach the limits of its own domestic oil producing capacity (Stobaugh and Yergin 3).
Two years later, the production of domestic oil in the United States began to decline
(Stobaugh and Yergin 3). Clearly, the warning signs were on the wall.
The oil embargo soon turned into .a full-fledged energy crisis, the first one in
peacetime American history. With the OPEC oil cartel forcing higher and higher prices
through decreased production and the embargo, the United States clearly had to do
something in order to preserve its security and to maintain stable economic growth. It
had to become less dependent on insecure sources of foreign oil, namely, from OPEC.
The government had a number of potential options where it could seek involvement. It
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could encourage the exploration and development of more domestic oil production. Total
energy consumption by the nation could attempt to be lowered through conservation
measures. Efforts could be made to increase the production of energy from nonpetroleum
sources. Lastly, a combination of all three could be used to help offset the
coming crisis and shortages.
THE ADVENT OF PROJECT INDEPENDENCE
Federal energy policy is a relatively new phenomenon in American public policy.
Richard Nixon's was the first presidential administration to recognize that the nation's
supply and use of energy deserved comprehensive government attention. In 1971, he
became the first Chief Executive to give a message specifically on energy policy to the
Congress. This intuition greatly served the country when, two years later, conflict in the
Middle East led to an embargo of crude oil by members of OPEC on the United States.
Two weeks after the embargo was initiated, President Nixon delivered a televised speech
on the impending harm that this act was going to bring upon the American economy and
people. In order to deal with the embargo, and to prevent the harmful effects of any
others in the future, the administration devised a public policy initiative called "Project
Independence." Its aspiration, stated by President Nixon in his televised "Address About
Policies To Deal With the Energy Shortages" was as follows:
Let us unite in committing the resources of this Nation to a
major new endeavor, an endeavor that in this Bicentennial Era we can
appropriately call "Project Independence."
Let us set as our national goal, in the spirit of Apollo, with the
determination of the Manhattan Project, that by the end of this decade
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we will have developed the potential to meet our own energy needs
without depending on any foreign energy sources.
Let us pledge that by 1980, under Project Independence, we
shall be able to meet America's energy needs from America's own
energy resources (Nixon Papers 1973, doc. 323).
Nixon repeated this aim in another televised speech to the American people two-and-a-half
weeks later again on the energy crisis:
Let me conclude by restating our overall objective. It can be
summed up in one word that best characterizes this Nation and its
essential nature. That word is "independence." ...
What I have called Project Independence 1980 is a series of
plans and goals set to insure that by the end of this decade, Americans
will not have to rely on any source of energy beyond our own (Nixon
Papers 1973, doc. 339).
Clearly, President Nixon was not timid about the ambition that this policy was to
achieve. The goals and aims of Project Independence were, however, never met.
Although the exact language and timetable of Project Independence was to change after
the Nixon Administration, they, too, were also never met. Nevertheless, many citizens
and politicians alike have been obsessed with the United States achieving the goals
originally set out by President Nixon on the nation achieving self-sufficiency regarding
its energy needs.
As important as economics and geopolitics were to its fate, this thesis will analyze
the failure of Project Independence solely from a domestic public policy standpoint. The
language and goals of Nixon's original policy proposal detailing Independence will be
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analyzed, not subsequent alterations and energy proposals offered by Presidents Ford and
Carter, with concentration will be placed on the long term goals of Independence.
Project Independence consisted of two parts: initiatives to ease the short-term
pains of the OPEC embargo and programs to ensure that the Republic would never again
be at the mercy of a cartel of nation-states in such a vital industry.
ANALYSIS OF THE SHORT TERM AIMS OF PROJECT INDEPENDENCE
In the short-run, this course means that we must use less energy - that
means less heat, less electricity, less gasoline. In the long run, it means
that we must develop new sources of energy which will give us the
capacity to meet our needs without relying on any foreign nation
(N"ixon Papers 1973, doc. 323).
As noted in the quote above, Project Independence consisted of two aspects:
short-term and long-term goals. The provisions that follow as chapter subheadings were
major proposals of an emergency energy legislation, detailed by President Nixon, both in
his televised address to the American people on November 8 and in his message to
Congress the following day, on how government was to deal with short-term effects the
OPEC embargo were to have on the country. Nixon hoped that Congress would pass
each of these short term measures before it went on its winter recess.
Restrictions on Public and Private Consumption of Energy
Nixon listed some examples of the restrictions that he had in mind in his "Special
Message to the Congress Proposing Emergency Legislation":
Authorize restrictions on both the public and private consumption of
energy by such measures as limitations on essential uses of energy
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(office hours, for instance) and elimination of non-essential uses
(decorative lighting, for example) (Nixon Papers 1973, doc. 324).
The President was extremely careful in the choosing of his words, however, regarding the
intent of these restrictions stating to the American people that:
The fuel crisis need not mean genuine suffering for any
American. But it will require some sacrifice by Americans.
We must be sure that our most vital needs are met first - and
that our least important activities are the first to be cut back (Nixon
Papers 1973, doc 323).
Although the Senate approved a national energy conservation program in 1973,
the matter was not brought up in the House of Representatives until 1975, when the
Energy Policy and Conservation Act (PL 94-163) came into law.
Clearly, this measure did not meet the guideline set forth by President Nixon. The
programs included within this bill also did not reflect the original language or intent or
Nixon. It did offer measures to improve the fuel efficiency of passenger cars and label
the energy efficiency of consumer products. The Act also directed the Federal Energy
Administration to set voluntary efficiency improvements to the ten largest energy
consuming industries within the country. From the standpoint of following the intent of
Project Independence, the conservation and efficiency measures within PL 94-163 were a
disappointment. There were no provisions relating to "restrictions on the public and
private consumption of energy." Limits were not, for example, placed on the hours
businesses could remain open.
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'
Reduction of Speed Limits on Highways
In his proposal of Project Independence, President Nixon requested that Congress
lower the speed limit on federal highways to 50 miles per hour. The administration
expected this move to save 7.3 million barrels of oil a year (Energy Policy 138).
In late December 1973, Congress approved a measure lowering the speed limit on
federal highways to 55 miles per hour. This was 5 miles per hour above President
Nixon's original request. After protests by truckers that their semis would be less
efficient at 50 than at 55, Nixon relented on his original request. The administration sung
its support to lowering of 55 mph, and Nixon signed it into law (PL 93-239). The
executive branch enforced this measure on the states by tying the lowering of speed limits
on federal highways to federal funding of highway projects through the Department of
Transportation. Backers of the new limits claimed that the measures would save between
4.7 and 6 million gallons of gasoline per year (Energy Policy 138). In 1974, Congress
made the new speed limits permanent (PL 93-643).
Even though physical enforcement of this act on the local level was somewhat
difficult, as many drivers neglected to follow the limits, this policy can be deemed as a
success. They were passed by Congress in line with President Nixon's timeline, and they
not only conserved gasoline, they also contributed to a greater sense of safety on the
nation's highway system. These limits remained in place until 1995 (PL 104-59) when
the Congress eliminated federal speed limits and empowered the states to set their own
speed limits on federal highways, ending a provision that was 21 years old.
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Naval Petroleum Reserves
President Nixon proposed opening up the naval oil reserves to stimulate domestic
production of oil. In 1976, Congress approved the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production
Act (PL 94-258). Prior to the passage of the law, all crude oil located in these reserves
was reserved solely for use by the Navy in times of national defense. The new law
directed the Secretary of the Navy to begin drilling and production within 90 days for
three of the four Naval Reserves, Reserves #1 (Elk Hills), #2 (Buena Vista), and #3
(Teapot Dome). Production was to be at maximum capacity for six years, unless a threeyear
extension was to be granted by both Congress and the president. Control over
Reserve #4, in Alaska, was transferred to the Department of the Interior and was
reclassified as the National Petroleum Reserve. This oil reserve was the largest and
richest of the four, and it had yet to be drilled. The Act forbade any development or
drilling within it until approval was given by Congress. The new law also allowed for the
creation of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, which were to be used in times of national
emergencies, at the discretion of the president. The president was also given the
authority to place the share of the oil produced from the reserves owned by the United
States government into the Strategic Reserves as he saw fit. The meaning of"national
defense" was also altered to include economic emergencies, such as the one caused by
the OPEC embargo (Energy Policy 172).
Though the legislation was passed in 1976, the Naval Petroleum Reserves
Production Act was an extremely beneficial piece oflegislation, not only in the short
term, but for the long term as well. In the era of detente and nuclear deterrence, naval
reserves of oil to be set aside only for explicit national emergencies, national defense in
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the old language, were clearly not needed. The Strategic Petroleum Reserves were also
to become, in later presidential administrations, the main pillar of energy policy.
Daylight Saving Time
The initial national daylight saving time bill (PL 93-182) was passed by Congress
in December of 1973 and put the nation on year-round daylight saving time. It was
estimated by officials in support of the legislation that placing the nation on this system
would equal between 2 to 3 percent of energy consumption per year (Energy Policy 140).
This measure was included in Nixon's proposal for Project Independence.
National daylight saving time was to have lasted for two years (through the winter
of 1974-1975), but public protest pushed Congress to enact a different version, which
restored standard time for the winter months ofNovember, December, January, and
February (PL 93-434). The main argument in support of its repeal was that the safety of
the nation's children was compromised by forcing them to walk to school in the dark for,
according to the Department of Transportation, savings approximately 1 percent in the
two months prior to its repeal, March and April (Congress and the Nation Vol. lV8ll).
National daylight savings was imposed for the first time since World War II, but it was to
only last for the first four months of 1974. The measure was estimated by the Rand
Corporation to have saved the country 11 percent of its electricity. By 1973, many
analysts within the Interior Department thought that the conservation would actually be
less, because electricity was more commonly used for heat and air conditioning purposes
than for lights, which was more common during the WW II years.
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ANALYSIS OF THE LONG-TERM AIMS OF PROJECT INDEPENDENCE
President Nixon believed that the long-term goals of Project Independence were
just as important to its success as were the short-term goals, declaring that Congress
"must not ignore the need for preventing such a crisis from recurring" (Nixon Papers
1973, doc. 324). The provisions that follow as chapter subheadings were major proposals
advocated by President Nixon to help solve the country's long term energy needs.
Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline
Authorization for the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline had been sought
by a consortium of oil companies since its vast reserves in the North Slope were first
discovered in 1968 by Atlantic Richfield Company. In order to solve the logistical
problems of transporting this oil, a consortium of the major oil companies was formed,
designated as the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. The consortium sought to build a
pipeline from Prudhoe Bay, on the northern coast, to Valdez, which was located on the
southern coast on the Gulf of Alaska. From Valdez, the oil was to be transported to the
western coast of the continental United States. It was estimated that this pipeline would
carry 2 million barrels of crude oil each day from Alaska to the rest of the country
(Energy Policy 133). The major obstacle to building the pipeline was that the federal
government owned nearly all of the land on the proposed route.
The judicial system proved to be the major stumbling block to the construction of
the pipeline. When the consortium applied for federal permits from the Department of
the Interior for construction, environmentalists and conservationists quickly moved to
block them. In 1970, they won an order from a federal district court, which forbade the
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Secretary to issue any permits for construction until the environmental impact and
alternative modes of transporting the crude oil were assessed. In 1972, a nine-volume
report was released to the public, after which the Secretary declared that he would indeed
issue the permits. Opponents then appealed the decision by the Secretary to eliminate the
order, which they won in 1973. Next, the federal government appealed the matter to the
Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the opponents, citing the 1920 Mineral Leasing
Act (PL 66-146), which prohibited the rights-of-way on public lands to 50 feet across.
Undeterred, the Nixon Administration lobbied Congress to enact an entirely new
piece of legislation, which would increase the length of the rights-of-way, thus paving the
way for construction. Shortly after Nixon announced Project Independence, Congress
passed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act (PL 93-153). This was also the first
energy-related piece oflegislation to reach Nixon's desk after he outlined Independence.
Indeed, he even stated that it "must be the first order of business as we tackle our longrange
energy problems" (Nixon Papers, doc. 324).
The construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was a major moment in the history
of energy policy in the United States. At its completion, it was the largest privately
funded project ever, costing $800 million in 1977 (http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/). The
800 mile long pipeline was pumped over 13 billion barrels of North Slope crude to over
16,000 tankers (http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/). Most of all, it showed a determinedness
to OPEC that the country was willing and able to produce large amounts of oil
domestically. There have been significant benefits to Alaska's economy and native
population, and there has not been a major environmental disaster directly associated
with the handling of the pipeline.
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Deregulation of Natural Gas
From the end of World War II thru 1972, natural gas had been the fastest growing
source of energy in the U.S. During that time, it went from roughly one-eighth of total
energy consumption to meeting nearly one-third, largely due to declining transmission
costs (Mancke 106). Government policies also had a hand in the rise of natural gas
usage. An increase in environmental importance and pollution-control policies, such as
the Clean Air Act (PL 91-604), put an increased premium on clean-burning natural gas.
Government regulation, stemming from the 1938 Natural Gas Act (PL 75-690), also
contributed to natural gas's increased usage. The Supreme Court, in Phillips Petroleum
Co. v. Wisconsin, ruled that this Act gave states
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