Spotty Local Starts

The Federal Energy Office made it official last week: it has "certainly decided" against beginning nationwide gasoline rationing on March 1. Administrator William Simon had previously picked that date as the earliest the agency could begin distributing the ration coupons the Government has been printing. So, for at least the time being, the only hope that motorists have for shrinking the long and frustrating lines stretching from gasoline pumps lies in the local rationing plans that are spreading across the country. Last week six more states--Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington--and a number of cities, including Miami and San Diego, adopted some form of rationing. Their plans got off to a spotty start.

Nearly all the systems follow the for mat pioneered by Oregon last month: motorists whose license plates end in an even number can buy gas only on the even dates of the calendar; odd-numbered days are reserved for the owners of cars with odd-numbered plates. In order to prevent obsessive "topping off' of tanks, a minimum purchase of half a tankful, or $3 worth, often must be made. Compliance is generally voluntary, but New Jersey and Maryland joined Hawaii in setting up mandatory systems backed by stiff fines of up to $1,000 on station owners or motorists who are caught acting in violation of the rules.

The plans brought out the best and worst in the customers--more often the worst. Lines generally shortened; "It works!" headlined the Miami Herald.

But many drivers, says John Bell, owner of a Mobil station in Lexington, Mass., "have tried every trick in the book to beat the system, from 'My wife is about to give birth' to 'My daughter is sick.' It's incredible the sob stories you hear." In Wilkes-Barre, Pa. a woman argued for five minutes at pumpside that eight was not an even but an odd number. In San Diego, bribery reared up.

"One day when the station was closed," says Greg Wilson, an attendant at a Phillips 66 station, "a guy drove in and offered me whatever I wanted to fill his tank. He was so angry when I refused."

Troubles aside, the new restrictions on gasoline are necessary. U.S. refineries have only enough crude to operate at 82% of capacity. Oil imports are dropping steadily, reports the FEO: from 5 million bbl. a day two weeks ago to 4.9 million bbl. last week. Compounding an already bad situation, most drivers still seem unwilling to form car pools or switch to alternative forms of transit. In a Gallup poll last week, 79% of those interviewed said that they used autos to go to work--exactly the same proportion as in 1971.

All this puts special pressure on the FEO'S program to allocate gasoline supplies equitably throughout the nation.

That program, says FEO Deputy Administrator John Sawhill, still has "kinks."

For one thing, allocations are based on gasoline sales in 1972, and many areas have gained great numbers of cars since then. Also, the allocations that were announced last week were based on incomplete data. As a result, some states were given less gasoline than they merited. Through a quickly corrected computer error, Texas, of all places, was initially granted an extra allocation. Though some changes have been made, top state officials in New England, the Middle Atlantic and Northwest are screaming that they are being shortchanged.

"We see our gasoline conservation efforts going up in fumes while Washington flounders," Connecticut Governor Thomas J. Meskill stated last week. He vowed to confront Simon and to "sit on his desk" if necessary to get more gasoline. Rather than wait, Simon dispatched 20 FEO "action teams" to states in distress. The teams are supposed to advise local officials about how to make the best use of their allocations and to update growth statistics for future allocations. Meantime, Simon forbade service stations to save gas for their regular clients.

To many gas-station owners, the new rules and the unruly customers were too much to tolerate. Some closed down in protest. Others took even more dramatic steps. "I've been threatened by a man with a gun, and one of my employees was arrested for fighting with a customer he turned down," said Sam King, who runs a Shell station in Owings Mills, Md. "Now the FEO says I cannot sell to regular customers, and the Internal Revenue Service says I can't sell by appointment only." King's solution: he abandoned the pumps, let customers serve themselves free and watched drivers battle for control of the pump handles.

Salvatore Butera, owner of a BP station in Trenton, N.J., signaled his distress in another way. New Jersey stations are now required by the state to put out various colored flags (red for no gas, yellow for limited sales, green for unlimited sales). Butera hoisted a white flag, explaining, "They got me beat any way I turn."

Despite the new restrictions, the old lines remained in many areas, and with them came opportunities of various kinds. Bob Flynn, assistant manager of the Burger King on Northern Boulevard in Greenvale, L.I., sent his helpers out to motorists waiting to get into the corner Shell station; he sold some $30 worth of food in a half hour. In Brooklyn, lined-up drivers were approached by a man wearing a service-station uniform. "We're trying to speed things along," he said. "We've got a $5 limit, so pay me now and I'll give you a receipt that you hand over at the pump." But when the drivers got to the pump, the attendants did not know anything about the deal, and the wily entrepreneur had vanished.

The only real solution to the troubles is more gasoline. But Simon is leaving to refineries the decision about when and how fast to switch from producing heating oil to making more gas. FEO's Sawhill says that "we should be in better shape by March." Much depends, however, on the Arab embargo; if it is not lifted soon, nationwide coupon rationing may yet prove inevitable.

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