Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.energy From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: energy Wed, Mar 11 1992 Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 05:46:04 EST Message-ID: 03-11 0000 DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update March 11, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network HOUSE ENERGY BILL MOVING AHEAD: The House national energy policy bill takes another step forward this week. The House Energy Committee on Wednesday is to begin fiddling with the energy bill sent to it by its energy and power subcommittee. The committee met Tuesday afternoon to give members a chance to make opening statements before getting down to the real work of turning out a bill for the full House to debate. (For more, see special Energy package below.) PUMP PRICES DOWN: Average U.S. retail gasoline prices fell in the past week, making them 4.6 cents a gallon cheaper since Jan. 1, the American Automobile Association said. The price for a gallon of self-serve regular unleaded dropped 0.5 cent, to $1.051, for the week, AAA said. On New Year's Day, the price was $1.097. Except for two weeks in February, the average price has dropped every week this year. SLOW ADVANCE FOR OIL: Most oil prices advanced marginally in slow trading Tuesday. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in April settled at $18.69 a barrel, up 2 cents, at the New York Merc. Home heating oil for delivery in April settled at 51.83 cents a gallon, up .65 cent. Natural gas prices were mostly higher, with contracts for April delivery settling at $1.188 per 1,000 cubic feet, up 0.8 cent. DANGERS OF EMF LINES FEARED: More federal research is needed on whether high-tension lines endanger humans, a House panel was told Tuesday. The House Science subcommittee was urged to pass a bill to create a new $60 million, 10-year federal program to investigate health risks. Past studies have indicated there may be a link between electromagnetic fields (EMF) and higher-than-normal incidences of childhood leukemia. ADVISORY PANEL WOULD BE CREATED: A bill now in Congress that would create a 10-year program to probe the health risks of electromagnetic fields would establish an 11-member advisory committee to set priorities and evaluate research proposals. The findings would be reported to the National Academy of Sciences. Besides the $6 million in annual federal funding, the measure permits the solicitation of matching funds. COAL MINERS STAGE RALLY: Nearly 1,500 retired and active coal miners march on the Labor Department and knocked on senators' doors Tuesday to try to save the United Mine Workers of America Health and Retirement Funds. The industry health-care system financed by coal companies could run out of money as early as next month because many firms have gone out of business or stopped paying into the funds. MOST CANDIDATES BACK NUKE POWER: Nuclear power is among the key domestic issues being debated during the presidential primary campaigns. Among the Democratic candidates, Jerry Brown and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton oppose nuclear power, while Paul Tsongas favors it. Brown, if elected, says he would phase out nuclear plants within 10 years. GOP candidates President Bush and Patrick Buchanan back nuclear power. SUPERCONDUCTOR THEORY PROPOSED: A new theory seems to explain why materials that can carry electricity at very high temperatures are not superconductive. Phillip Anderson's theory suggests that electrons flowing through the materials turn into a pair of energy packets. One spins but has no electrical charge, while the other doesn't spin but has an electrical charge. Normally, electrons have both charge and spin. LEGO'S SALARY CUT: Westinghouse Electric cut its chairman's salary by $1 million last year, when the company lost $1.1 billion. Paul Lego's pay was cut to $677,083 from $1.68 million in 1990. Westinghouse says Lego has financial incentives to improve the company's performance, including a $1.1 million incentive for meeting unspecified goals during a three-year period that ends next year. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON ENERGY: ANWR, CAFE NOT ADDRESSED: Rep. Phil Sharp, D-Ind., chief architect of the energy bill, said that it is a bipartisan effort. The bill does not address two of the most contentious energy issues - opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, and raising gas mileage, or corporate average fuel economy, standards for cars. Senate energy bill passed last month contained neither provision. BILL WOULD CUT OIL IMPORTS: Sharp said some people have criticized his bill as being empty without ANWR and CAFE, but "they are dead wrong." He said the House bill, as written now, would reduce oil imports by about 3 million barrels a day by the year 2010. It would save the equivalent of another 2 million barrels a day in reduced demand, primarily for electricity. It would reduce greenhouse gases by 14%. WORK MAY BEGIN THIS WEEK: The House Energy Committee may finish its work on the bill yet this week. If the full House passes a version, a House-Senate conference committee will work out differences. President Bush has said he wants a national energy strategy and sent a plan to Congress. The Senate bill incorporates much of that, although Bush wanted to open up drilling in ANWR. (End of package.) Energy Editor: William Snoddy. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. 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