4. There will be many who will charge that the fault lies with private enterprise but the truth is that the guilt is largely chargeable to the political process. Ill-conceived legislation and fiscal and monetary policies created the economic environment that caused today's crisis. If we are to effect the cures, we have to assess accurately the causes. First, control of interstate natural gas pricing and establishment of prices at levels below its competitive value as a fuel concurrently stimulated demand while it discouraged discovery and supply. This unrealistic price level diverted natural gas to uses that otherwise would have been supplied by other fuels. Second, our policies and programs controlling foreign oil imports kept the competitive price too low to stimulate domestic production of either oil or coal and the future of supply too uncertain to bring about expansion of domestic petroleum refineries. Third, despite warnings from industry spokesmen of the consequences, we revised the tax laws in 1969. It was politically expedient to label "depletion allowances" as a "loophole" rather than recognizing them as a true tax allowance for those with wasting assets. Under the lower depletion allowances, the search for domestic resources declined just as industry predicted it would. Fourth, in a burst of emotion the Congress passed with great public approval environmental legislation. It did so without analyzing clearly the consequences, without cost/benefit studies, and without the solid basis of factual information to support the action taken or the regulations that are derived from it. Overnight we insisted on "clean energy" with too little regard to whether such a worthy objective was within our power in the time frame set out for its achievement.