A Sky Full of Learjets

Legions of lobbyists flew the big gas message to Capitol Hill

In the closing flurry of lobbying for gas deregulation last week, the opposing sides could agree on one thing: they had never seen anything like it. Said the American Gas Association's vice president for Government relations, Nick L. Laird: "It is one of the most intensive, all-out efforts I've ever witnessed." Added James Plug, director of Energy Action Committee, a consumers' lobbying group: "From my experience on the Hill, I don't remember anything like it. Maybe the exception is the antiwar movement."

While the White House dawdled, the forces attacking Carter's energy plan and supporting deregulation mobilized skillfully. The pressure was unrelenting but not brutal. "There was no arm twisting," said North Dakota Democrat Quentin Burdick, a particularly vulnerable target because he was one of the fence sitters (he eventually voted for deregulation). "It was very gentlemanly."

It was also rather indirect, at least in the sense that the giant gas producers, which are also the big oil producers --Exxon, Texaco, Standard Oil of Indiana, Mobil and Gulf--struck an above-the-battle pose and rarely got down into the pit themselves. Said David Foster, executive vice president of the Natural Gas Supply Committee, the producer-sponsored lobby that operates on an annual budget of $500,000 to $750,000: "To attempt to lobby this issue on the concerns of the producers of natural gas is an impossibility. When it's your customers who are saying they don't want to pay controlled prices, that has an effect. The bacon was carried by the people who use natural gas."

Such familiar energy lobbyists as the American Petroleum Institute, the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the A.G.A., which represents 33 of the nation's 120 interstate pipeline companies as well as 300 local gas firms, were active, of course. But so were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, speaking for 70,000 member businesses, and the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, which includes 118 farm and marketing co-ops and 3.5 million farmers. These groups had one overriding concern: they did not want a repetition of last winter's drastic shortage of natural gas.

The far-flung lobbyists were well-briefed and coordinated. Preparations began just after the House turned down deregulation and passed the Carter energy bill before the summer recess. Recalled Carl Suchocki of the Natural Gas Supply Committee: "Word went out: we have to get out to the grass roots, and we have one month to do it." Added Foster: "Few of our people went to the beach in August. They stayed at their desks through the smog and the heat."

When Congress returned, the lobbyists were waiting. In traditional fashion, some camped out in alcoves just off the Senate floor, where they propagandized Senators with an array of computer studies and charts. So many executives of major firms swarmed to Washington to make personal pitches that an aide to Energy Czar James Schlesinger groused, "The sky was black with Learjets."

Some of the most effective lobbying was done from a distance. "I never go to Capitol Hill," said Chris Farrand, director of energy and environment for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "I generate three or four calls to a Senator. He'll take those calls while three or four lobbyists are waiting outside his office." Senators were phoned by major employers from their home states, warning of imminent layoffs and plant closings if an adequate gas supply was not assured. Workers and shareholders were also urged to write or wire their Senators; the argument was made that even though their gas bills might increase under deregulation, a gas shortage could cost them more by imperiling their dividend checks and their pensions. A group of 28 public relations people in Washington assembled arguments in favor of deregulation and sent packets out to field offices around the country.

The lobbying was all the more important because the arguments were so far apart and the figures in such dispute. Industry spokesmen claimed that plenty of gas could be recovered if prices were allowed to rise sufficiently to encourage producers. Drilling has grown increasingly costly because most new gas can now be found only in tighter formations at depths of 15,000 ft. to 20,000 ft. The deregulators argued that even if the price of new gas rose as high as $3.25 per thousand cubic feet (m.c.f.)--compared with the present regulated price of $1.47 per m.c.f. when piped across state lines--only some $4 billion would be tacked to the national gas bill by 1980. The President's forces, on the other hand, maintained that an adequate amount of gas could be produced at the Administration-proposed price of $1.75 per m.c.f., rising to $3.25 by 1985. Anything higher, they argued, would result in windfall profits for the gas companies and add a whopping $25 billion to the national consumer bill by 1980. Said A.G.A. President George H. Lawrence: "Everyone's swimming in figures."

But the current was clearly in favor of the producers. The pro-Administration forces, including labor lobbyists, Naderites and other consumer groups, were loosely allied, often unorganized and, ultimately, no match for the pro-gas juggernaut. Even if the gas interests do not win complete deregulation in the end, they are confident they will get a good price for their product when the two chambers meet in conference to thrash out a final bill. Said James Abourezk, the South Dakota Democrat who launched the filibuster in hopes of thwarting the deregulators: "If you want to talk about lobbying, wait until the oil and gas boys zero in on the conference committee members."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.