NICB CONFERENCE - CAREFREE, ARIZONA Remarks by E. W. Littlefield JANUARY 28, 29, 1972 As we look down the road toward 1985 we foresee an inability to increase our present supplies of hydropower, natural gas or petroleum from Western Hemisphere production. Coal could supply a growing share of the energy market but will only do so if we overcome some serious obstacles that now stand in the way. Nuclear energy should be the fastest growing source of new energy but here too we must overcome serious obstacles. We can also expect some relief down the road from increased production of synthetic oil and natural gas. Finally, petroleum imported from a handful of Eastern countries, primarily the Opec group, will be necessary to bring energy supplies in balance with energy demand. Even under a set of reasonably optimistic assumptions about our ability to increase supplies from other sources, by 1985 almost half of our petroleum needs must be imported from Eastern Hemisphere sources. If this doesn't scare you, you've never done business with an Arab. It could be even worse than this unless we begin to bring some measure out of the chaos that now surrounds our approach to the energy problem. We have some work to do and some hard decisions to make, and we'd better get on with the job. Among the things that we must do are these: First, we must recognize that energy is a single problem of critical national importance and develop an energy policy accordingly. Second, we must identify the obstacles and decide what we can do to remove or diminish them. High on the list is striking a proper balance between the importance of environmental and national energy needs and to rationalize whatever con-