News stories from Sunday December 30, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Federal Energy Office made three announcements intended to demonstrate that the complex new rules for fuel allocations will be enforced. These were: The energy office is "looking into the inventory practices of refiners, importers, wholesalers and end users" of oil products to prevent "the possibility of fuel being stockpiled in excessive and unreasonable amounts." A force of 1,000 agents of the Internal Revenue Service is being mobilized to enforce both the present regulations and those that will take effect in mid-January. More than 15,000 hardship cases, mainly involving propane and middle distillate oil products such as heating oil, have been settled and the oil allocation staff has risen to 900 from 370. [New York Times]
- Methanol, or wood alcohol, is receiving serious scientific attention as a versatile energy source for this country. Proponents of methanol, which has two-thirds of the heat potential of gasoline, note that it can be stored, moved and used in existing equipment of a petroleum-fired economy, including electric power plants, home furnaces and automobiles. [New York Times]
- Egypt's military pressure against Israeli troops, apparently intended in part to exert some influence in the crucial Israeli elections today, was continuing on an intense level according to reports by the United Nations Emergency Force. A United Nations spokesman in Cairo reported in a daily briefing that there were 46 outbreaks of shooting along the frontlines on Friday, the latest period for which United Nations reports were available. [New York Times]
- Britain goes to a three-day work week today -- a fuel-saving measure that has raised fears of bankruptcies and unemployment in the millions for British industry. The Conservative government says Britain is facing its gravest economic crisis since World War II. It ordered the three-day week because a miners' slowdown has sent coal supplies plummeting, compounding the fuel shortage caused by a 15% reduction in Middle East oil supplies. [AP]
- A 30-year-old divorcee in Pittsburgh within three hours had an abortion, rested in a private clinic's recovery room, paid the $150 fee and went home. A year ago the abortion would have been illegal in Pennsylvania and almost every other state, but today, almost a year after the Supreme Court ruled that abortions were legal, tens of thousands of operations are being undertaken by clinics and hospitals in virtually every part of the country. The Court decision has removed much of the social stigma associated with abortion. [New York Times]