News stories from Sunday January 30, 1977

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

A "permanent, very serious energy shortage" probably faces the country, President Carter said when he flew by helicopter to a plant in the Pittsburgh area that has been affected by the cold. Conservation "will be the major component" of a comprehensive national energy policy he will send to Congress no later than April 20, the President said. [New York Times] Utilities suddenly canceled a plan to stop natural gas service to about 5,500 industrial and commercial users and saved 71,000 jobs in New York City and Westchester County, and federal officials said the danger of interruption in gas service to homes had diminished. But the severe cold still kept more than 1.5 million workers across the country idle and may force more people from their jobs later this week. [New York Times] A new gas field discovered in Texas could provide enough gas to the entire country for six months. But its owner is reluctant to let it go outside Texas because consumers in the state pay more for it than those in other states. Texas buyers pay about $2 per thousand cubic feet for natural gas, while out-of-state buyers are under federal price controls that prohibit them from paying more than $1.42 per thousand cubic feet. [New York Times] The joblessness brought about by the natural gas emergency is putting a heavy new burden on state unemployment insurance funds already strained by earlier unemployment caused by two years of recession. Even before the new crisis, 21 states have had to call on the federal government for $3.9 billion in loans to keep their funds from going bankrupt. New York state will join them next month. [New York Times] With skepticism is the way businessmen and economists view the most novel element in President Carter's proposed tax relief for business, which is an optional tax credit tied to an employer's Social Security tax payments. The Carter economic stimulus program is widely regarded as insufficient, and the Social Security, or payroll, tax credit is looked upon as especially dubious. [New York Times] The Treasury, with the Federal Reserve's support, will be active in the debt markets every day this week as it sells $15 billion of bills, notes and bonds to refund maturing securities and to raise $3.7 billion cash. [New York Times] Corporate profits in the fourth quarter of 1976 are showing moderate to relatively strong gains, according to company reports. Earnings of chemical companies and banks in 1977 will probably increase an additional 8 percent and as much as 20 percent for oil companies and some steel companies, but profits of many brokerage houses, according to economic forecasters, are expected to decline this year. [New York Times] Natural gas, which has become an essential fuel for homes and industry, piped across the country, was once only a by-product of petroleum exploration and for years it was burned away in Texas as a waste material. Only a quarter of each year's production goes to homes; the rest is consumed by industry. [New York Times] Pennsylvania's Fayette County, once the "soft coal center of the world," is one of the areas in the Northeast suffering most from the cold. The county Commissioner reported that 500 families were without heating fuel and that emergency lines were clogged all day with new pleas for help. The county's 154,000 residents live atop a huge coal deposit, but most have switched from coal to oil or gas for heating and now must depend on Texas and Saudi Arabia for fuel. [New York Times] He did not know In advance that the State Department press office would issue a warning to the Soviet Union about silencing Andrei Sakharov, President Carter said. The statement, however, "was my attitude," he said. "We're not going to back down on human rights," he declared. [New York Times]