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Show 2. that is unacceptable from the standpoint of either our economic and social structure or our national security. Fourth, the cost of energy will increase, no matter what we do. On imports our bargaining position is weak and domestically we require higher prices to stimulate the discovery and development of additional reserves. Fifth, clearly the national interest is best served by development of domestic energy supplies in order to reduce our dependence upon imported oil. Coal is certainly one mineral in which the United States is abundantly endowed with reserves already identified sufficient for many, many years to come. There is good reason to believe that we can develop in the U. S. the uranium reserves necessary to meet the very sharp increases in demand for nuclear power. Perhaps it is questionable whether we can develop all the petroleum and natural gas reserves we require but we can increase production of these fuels in large measure and alleviate further our need for foreign supplies. Finally, today's energy crisis is the result in large measure of massive failures in economic planning and in the United States' political process. This is a serious charge but we ignore the lesson to be learned here at our peril. We cannot afford in the future the mistakes we have made in the past. The world is not short of energy. There exist in the world ample undeveloped energy reserves to care for the world's needs for centuries to come. If we were One World, there would be no critical energy problem. But, alas, we are not one world but a world divided into sovereign states. The requirements for energy are concentrated in the highly industrialized areas - Japan, Europe, and the United States. In 1972, Japan, virtually without reserves or production of its own, consumed 9% of the world's oil. |