Let's focus our 'energy' on maintaining competition - Capitol Concerns - Editorial

Discount Store News, August 5, 1996 by Ken Rankin

For many of us, our most vivid memories of the 1970s include the hours spent sitting in our cars waiting in line to buy gasoline during the great energy crisis.

Spooked by the threat of another Arab oil embargo, the Carter Administration launched an all-out campaign to force us all--businesses and consumers alike--to take serious steps to conserve energy.

This was no mere public relations campaign cooked up in the White House. Administration officials designed and implemented heavy-handed federal regulations to ensure that the energy marketplace responded the way they wanted it to.

In short order, the government's fears of an energy crisis became a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Gasoline prices began to rise through the roof. Oil suppliers responded by slowing down deliveries in anticipation of higher prices ahead.

Washington responded with more regulations. Gas station operating hours were limited, and drivers were restricted to buying gasoline on alternate days of the week based on their license plate numbers.

World War II-style gasoline rationing was the next step, and the U.S. Department of Energy began printing millions of ration coupons.

Shoppers stopped driving to the mall, and retailers took a double hit as sales plunged at the same time that their own energy-related delivery and store operating costs surged upward. The Administration then issued emergency thermostat rules restricting the use of air conditioning and heat.

The energy crisis ended almost as quickly as it began: President Reagan simply declared it over, lifted all the Carter Administration's regulations, and the marketplace did the rest. Energy prices dropped, supplies increased, gasoline lines ended, and businesses and consumers were spared the prospect of continued unnecessary hardship.

Today that's all ancient history, but it should not be forgotten. The debate over federal energy policy has been rekindled in Congress as a result of new legislation introduced by Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-Colo.). And the discount store industry has a major stake in the outcome of that debate. Schaefer's bill would ensure that retailers and other consumers of electricity would have the right to choose from among competing suppliers, either under state programs to promote a competitive energy market or a federal mandate.

Although some states are already moving to open competition among suppliers of electricity, IMRA contends that federal legislation is necessary because other states are actively resisting deregulation.

Citing studies that suggest that the average consumer's electricity bill could drop by more than 40% due to market competition, IMRA state government affairs director Jenny Keehan believes that enactment of Schaefer's bill is now "a top priority for the mass retail industry." On that score, IMRA is not only on the right side of the legislative debate--it's on the right side of history.