News stories from Wednesday July 4, 1979

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

President Carter canceled his national energy address for Thursday, and the White House gave no explanation for the sudden change in plans. Mr. Carter's decision caught members of his cabinet, his White House aides and speechwriters by surprise, coming only hours after late revisions of the speech had been rushed to him at his Camp David retreat in Maryland. [New York Times] The United States consumed less oil during the first four months of this year than it did in the comparable period of 1978, while Western Europe and Japan burned more, according to new figures published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The figures show that between January and April of this year, U.S. oil consumption was seven-tenths of 1 percent below last year's level. [New York Times] Predictions of grim changes in the American way of life and living because of the energy shortage have become popular. But energy scholars foresee no such changes, although they concede the energy shortage will force some painful readjustments. [New York Times] The when and where of Skylab's fall is being studied in the granite depths of Cheyenne Mountain in the Colorado Rockies, where the Space Defense Center of the North American Air Defense Command has headquarters. Observations of the doomed space station come to the elaborately equipped center from around the world, and still, the answer to the question of where Skylab will fall is: Nobody knows. [New York Times] Radiation is a political issue today. With scientists in disagreement on what constitutes a safe level of radiation, and with the credibility of the scientific community, the government and the nuclear industry at a low ebb, the question of radiation safety has moved into the political arena. [New York Times] The resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in Decatur, Ala., appears to be part of an emerging racial pattern in the South. While Klan activity and membership remain below their most recent peak in the 1960's, the renewed vigor of the group in Decatur and elsewhere in the South is seen as a reflection of a more widespread rise in racial feeling among whites. [New York Times] A solution to the toxic waste problem in New York state turned out to be no solution at all. Pollution Abatement Services Inc., near Oswego, was the company the Environmental Conservation Department had hoped would cleanly burn much of the 1.2 million tons of hazardous waste generated annually by the state. But the already bankrupt company was finally ordered to shut down its incinerator, leaving 25,000 rotting, leaking drums of waste behind. [New York Times] Ahmed Ben Bella will be freed by the Algerian government after 14 years under house arrest. The announcement of the release of the first President of Algeria was made by the Algerian press agency, and had been expected for several months following the death in December of President Houari Boumediene, who deposed Mr. Ben Bella in 1965. [New York Times] Tourism in Spain is a target for the Basque separatist organization, which has launched a sporadic bombing campaign against the country's crowded Mediterranean beach resorts. Meanwhile, a Spanish government deputy was shot by gunmen who ambushed him as he returned to his home in central Madrid. [New York Times] Moves to normalize relations with Rhodesia are underway in Britain in a major foreign policy initiative by the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. But the prospect of recognizing the new government in Salisbury has aroused antagonism from the British Labor Party and from black leaders in Africa. [New York Times] Peking celebrated the Fourth of July with Bob Hope and a phalanx of American entertainers staging their own cultural revolution in the Chinese capital. The celebration took place before a bemused group of Chinese officials and invited foreigners. [New York Times] China wants to slow down its economic growth after Peking's plans for modernization proved too ambitious, overheating the economy and creating a number of serious imbalances. This is one of the major conclusions diplomats in China have reached after analyzing the mass of economic data China has made public recently. [New York Times]