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The Herald And The lantern

Thursday, August 2.1M»

THE GODFATHER

JBradley Proposes Home Energy Plan

WASHINGTON Sen

Hill Bradley. I) N J . is proposing a sweeping plan to increase Ihe nation's energ> supply by making millions of houses • energy' efficient" 4 at no direct cost to homeowners or the

overnment

We have an ex- ' fraordmary opportunity to slash the average utility hill and save fuel without making any sacrifices at all and the way to do it is to eliminate wasteful or unnecessary use of er ergy in our own homes, " Bradley said The senator said there is abundant evidence to^how that use of energy for heating in a typical American home can be reduced by 50 to 75 percent w ith a combination of steps including insulation, caulking, storm windows, and furnace modifications. If that wei^e done nationwide in each of about Ho million houses.'Bradley said researchers now estimate that within 5 to 10 years the United States would he saving 1.6 million barrels of oil a day • about a fifth of all oil now being

imported

Under his proposal, Bradley said private companies would make the energy saving improvements in houses on a systematic basis employing economies of scale to minimir.e the cost of the

work done

Utilities, he said, would pay for all of the work out of savings which they would realize because they would have far less need to expand their power plant , capacity or to tiuy foreign oil at rising prices Bradley said the government would do little more than expedite the program. and that homeowners would have to do nothing more than give permission tor work on their houses • in contrast to other plans which require owners to request audits, raise capital, secure financing, find a reputable company to do the job, or eventually pay off the investment. "There is no doubt that our greatest vulnerability to the OPEC cartel will occur during the next halfdozen years,'’ Bradley said, ‘and to counter that threat we need to take action that will yield quick dividends without imposing significant new financial

burdens on our citizens, government, nr utilities. ••Conservation is the cheapest and the most reliable path for the shortterm If we can reduce consumption of a barrel of nil at one location and make that unused oil available to meet demand elsewhere, it is even better than if we had produced an

extra barrel of oil.

Bradley said his program would .work this

way:

Homeowners in a community are advised that an energy efficiency expert will be coming to their neighborhoods to inspect every house free of charge and recommend ways of reducing energy consumption at no cost to the homeowner. If granted permission to enter a home, the auditor will make a survey, propose various improvements and give an estimate of the energy th^t will he saved as a result. After homeowners agree to go ahead, the recommendations will he carried out by private companies - again without cost to the horrleowner. In each case, the owners will get a more energyefficient home and save money as their utility costs decline because of the lower energy consumption. So. suppose a homeowner consuming 100 units of energy each month is paying $100 a month in utility bills and that the level of consumption is cut in half after various improvement arc made. In this case, that means the homeowner would have to pay only $50 a month in utility bills and 50 units of energy would be produced to meet demand by a different consumer. Energy conservation companies would undertake these saved energy production efforts after receiving a- contract-from the government The government would purchase the “saved energy” and then ••resell” that energy to the utilities serving the homeowners. Utilities would build that cost into their rate base, but at a lower cost than they would have had to pay for building new power plants or finc^ing new supplies. Utilities and their customers, therefore, benefit.

CAPITAL COMMENTS ■y Assembly Minority Leader James R. Hurley

The gasoline shortage of this summer, along with predictions of further shortages, has served to focus both public and official attention on the use -- or abuse -- of state-owned vehicles. The problem of who is assigned a state car and for what purpose is one of exceptionally longstanding and has defied solution. Gestures are made on occasion in the direction of cracking down on the use of these vehicles, usually after incidents have come to light involving their unauthorized use. Complaints are heard rather frequently concerning official state cars being used for commuting, for shopping trips, for vacations, and for a variety of personal reasons — all of which violate the regualtions with respect to the use of the cars. There have been instances in which the cars - clearly identified by official seals on the doors - have been seen on weekends along the New Jersey shore resort area, in shopping center parking lolj;. at movie theaters, and other places where the driver is obviously not on official ’state business.In one of the latest reports, a private citizen claimed tohave seen a state car transporting three dogs toa veterinarian's office. A few month's ago. the office of Fiscal Affairs conducted a study which determined that as many as 20 per cent of the state’s 3.200 car fleet were being used for cqymmuting purposes, another regualtory violation. The outcry for reform of the syslem reached its loudest level when, at the height of the gasoline shortage when service station lines forced waits as long as three 1 hours for motorists, it was revealed that as many as 600 state cars were being in violation of the regulations. The discontent was not all eased when the Attorney General issued an opinion in which he said it was necessary to continue the use of unmarked state cars, carrying confidential

license plates. His opinion was based on the need for secrecy for law enforcement officials, even though less than one-third of the nearly 700 unmarked cars are actually assigned tosuch personnel. Eliminating the abuses in the use of state cars is, admittedly, a difficult task, but this Administration seems to be willing to assign very low priority to it in the hopes that the complaints will eventually diminish. TheT| minority represellation on the Joint Appropfrations Committee has attempted to address this problem by offering a proposal to reduce the overall state fleet by 10 per' cent and require individual department heads to make the reductions. Needless to say. the majority rejected the idea and the fleet continued to grow. Now. however, when private individuals are suffering under a harsh burden caused by the gasoline j shortage, goverment may be forced by public opinion to take stern steps. It does nothing for government’s credibility when a Motorist who has waited in a service station line for several hours on an odd or even numbered day to purchase a minimum or maximum amount of fuel sees an official state car, its tank filled at a stateowned motor pool facility, transporting children to school or dogs to a veterinarian. There should be no reluctance on the part of. this Admimmration or on the partw any of its departmemf heads to cut back on thoVise of cars, not temporarily in the hopes the controversary will pass, but permanently so the controversy will not erupt again. The situation has been with us for much too long to dismiss it as a temporary or minor problem. It is clear that a strong stand must be taken, and some state employees will be required to give up their assigned vehicles. But, it is a stand which cannot be avoided any longer.

ttw SOVEREIGN STATE ol AFFAIRS BOYD A WOOD

'V'

CAPE MAY

COUNTY

Hrralft

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Oldest Free Weekly In The County

Our ThlrfGGnth Ymar Serving Cop* May County P.O. BonO 27tt Ouita Drlva Avalon. N.J. MMI Phono H7-1313 H7-7M« Publish#* Ivory Thursday By tho Saawavo Corporation Darraf I Kopp Editor and Publlshar •III Shanman Sports Editor Kathloon Co* Schaoffor Roportor J.A. Cunningham Poatura Writor Chary! Crows Poatura Writor Rotor Dunna Columnist Charlos P. Lamay Columnist Choryl Craws Graphics Contributor Gall Carlno Advortislng Graphics Susan Carr... i Compositor Nows A Photos Monday—-3 p.m. Advortislng Monday—3 p.m. Classlflod Advortislng.... .Tuesday - Noon

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LettersTo The Editor t : i

Gas Crisis Ripoff

To t)R Editor. If there is a gas shortage, why is it there is a gas station being built on Route 47, Rio Grande and other areas possibly. To me and others it seems to be a big rip off of the motoring public, Gas companies have the highest profits in history yet continue to raise prices at the pump. This shortage was predicted 10 years ago but

no one listened WHY! Now we must go through a lot of aggravation, waiting in line and told how much you must buy.

Is this the American way of life? I doubt it very much. I think it’s time for more people to let Washington know just how we feel about this rip off and NOW! V.McMahon Lower Township

Edgar Bailey: ‘Mr. Bartender’

by Jack Malabv STONE HARBOR- On this island he was Mr. Bartender. The very first thing one would notice ,about him was his beltime, 'over which hung an enormous /mass which he would pllasantly refer to as some-thing that war very hard to come by and something he earned along the way. His name was Edgar Bailey. "That’s Bailey, not Belly," he would say when he was in a good mood and frying to poke fun at his unusual physique. He was forever kidding, needling and poking fun at people and that part of life which was too serious. He was a man of few words except behind the bar, where if he didn’t insult you then you knew that he was either not feeling well or he just didn’t give a damn (for you in particular). He was very fair about it. He didn’t care who you were, how much you had in the way of material things, or what the natun of your parentage hw i-ened to be. If he like yo-i he insulted you-period! If yfw happened to live on this ^island nore than a week or tw ■ m the sum•nertime and \oudidn’t run into Bailey or hear his •feme in passing contrsation, then it could • Ifriost be stated as a cold •ct that you were not a .ir-goer. For this was the man’s chosen role. It was what he liked doing. For Ed Bailey, who spent better than thirty years at Hahn’s

Restaurant in Stone Harbor, life was a party. Tliere was no tommorrow to think too seriously about and no yesterday to cry over. He would have none of it, at least not while he was within earshot. He used to kid around when people were leaving town and say all they had to do when they wated to send him a note was to put Ed Bailey, South Jersey on the envelope. A slight exaggeration?? Perhaps, but not as far fetched as one would ordinarily believe. He knew literally thousands of people by name, and ten thousand more whose name and situation his brain could no longer, in fairness, absorb. The most significant thing is how much the man will be missed, for even his most hardened enemy will feel the weight of the amount of tears that will be shed in his behalf. Stone Harbor will never again be the same without him.

Avalon Square Club AVALON - A meeting will be held Friday, August 10 at 8:30 p.m. in Borough Hall, 32nd and Dune Drive in Avalon. Commander Arthur Cornell, R.O.T.C. Commander Officer at Middle Township High School will be the-speaker All Masonic men ate welcome for an evening of fellowship.