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 Mon, Mar 23 1992 Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 05:45:26 EST Message-ID: 03-23 0000 DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update March 23, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network LESSENED TENSION LOWERS PRICES: Crude oil futures prices settled lower Friday after Iraq appeared willing to allow U.N. teams to destroy its weapons arsenal. Light sweet crude for delivery in April, which rose 22 cents on Thursday, lost 39 cents to settle at $18.90 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Lower-grade sour crude for delivery in May settled at $16.29 per barrel, down 31 cents. REFINED PRODUCTS FALL: Contracts for refined products settled lower on the New York Merc Friday. Home heating oil for delivery in April settled at 53.29 cents a gallon, down 1.02 cents. Unleaded gasoline for April delivery settled at 57.48 cents, a loss of 1.84 cents a gallon. Natural gas for delivery in April settled at $1.268 per 1,000 cubic feet, up 1.5 cents from the previous session. PARTIAL VICTORY FOR MINERS: Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller declared at least a partial victory Friday in his fight to preserve retired coal miners' health benefits, even though President Bush vetoed the bill that would have guaranteed them. Rockefeller said that since Congress passed the measure as part of the Democratic economic growth package that should make it easier to get approval for another bill later. (For more, see special Coal package below.) EX-TVA CHAIRMAN SPEAKS OUT: Former Tennessee Valley Authority chairman S. David Freeman said Sunday the TVA is wasting billions of dollars on nuclear power programs that ultimately will force ratepayers to pay higher electric bills. A TVA spokesman said that under Freeman's leadership the utility raised residential rates 105% and industrial rates 133%. HANFORD FFTF ON STANDBY: Westinghouse Hanford Co. personnel Thursday performed a scheduled shutdown of the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) at Hanford to begin routine maintenance and refueling, the company said Friday. The outage was due to last about two and a half months. It is expected that the Department of Energy will tell Westinghouse to place the reactor on standby operational status beginning April 1. DOD SUED FOR OIL LAGOON: A number of major industrial firms are suing the Defense Department for the cleanup of a site in southern New Jersey that has been polluted with millions of gallons of waste oil over a period of 20 years, according to papers filed in federal court Friday. Most of the oil at the Bridgeport Rental and Oil Services (BROS) Superfund site came from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. OTHERS HAVE BEEN BLAMED: The Environmental Protection Agency is currently excavating the 13-acre oil lagoon at the BROS site and burning its contents in an on-site incinerator. EPA is paying for this work with money from the federal Superfund. The firms suing the Defense Department were named by the EPA as potentially liable for the cleanup costs. The suit says the government is responsible for most of the pollution. GAS TAX HIKE PART OF PLAN: A bitter debate is expected Monday in the Maryland House of Delegates over a $500 million tax package. A nickel increase in the state's gas tax and a 20 cents per-pack cigarette tax hike have been proposed. The plan would also give Baltimore and the state's 23 counties authority to raise residency taxes. The taxes and a state budget must be approved by midnight Saturday. NUCLEAR WORKERS FIRED: Fourteen workers at Idaho National Engineering Laboratory's Naval Reactors Facility in Idaho Falls have been fired after an investigation of timecard violations, the U.S. Department of Energy said Sunday. The workers were employed by Westinghouse Electric Corp., which operates the facility's training site. The Energy Department didn't say when the workers were fired. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON COAL: BENEFIT BACKERS FACE OPPOSITION: Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and other proponents of a compromise between the United Mine Workers of America and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association to save retired miners' benefits face opposition. That compromise would impose a new tax on almost all coal operators throughout the USA to replenish the UMWA health-care funds, which may run out of money next month. COMPETITVENESS MAY BE EFFECTED: Many senators and House members oppose that compromise because they fear the added taxes will make many non-union coal operators, especially in western states, less competitive with the unionized companies belonging to the BCOA. Rockefeller only succeeded in getting and keeping that compromise in the economic growth bill by threatening to vote against the overall measure if it was dropped. CHANCES OF PASSAGE ARE IMPROVED: In fighting those battles, Rockefeller said he believes a majority of votes in favor of the compromise has been achieved or at least made more likely, so its chances of success in later legislative rounds are improved. "I'm already crafting a strategy for attaching this measure to another vehicle," he said. TAX EXTENSION AN IDEA: Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., cited the health-care crisis as one of the key reasons for his vote in favor of the bill. "Let me remind my colleagues that there is a federal responsibility to these funds, dating back to 1946," he said. Rahall has introduced his own solution to the funds' problems: Transfer money from the abandoned mine reclamation fund and extend the reclamation tax. (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. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM