Word: doe
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...compete against the industry giants. Yet Bradshaw noted that his powers, like those of every high corporate executive, are severely limited: "Every decision made at my desk is influenced by some and sometimes most of the following: environmentalists, consumers, tax reformers, antinuclear protesters, the constraints of Government, the DOE [Department of Energy], the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], ICC [Interstate Commerce Commission], the FTC, the state governments, the municipal governments, the effect on inflation, on labor union attitudes, and on the OPEC cartel...
Rather than press criminal charges against the companies, DOE told them to refund the money, and gave the firms 40 days to appeal to an administrative law judge. Government attorneys fear that meeting the strict, "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard of proof under criminal law would be almost impossible considering the technicalities of the case...
...companies vigorously denied the charges and responded that they had simply been trying to abide by immensely confusing DOE regulations. At issue is the seemingly simple distinction between "old" oil and "new" oil. Under the price controls that Jimmy Carter will begin to phase out next month, petroleum discovered before 1973 can be sold only at a price that now averages $5.86 per bbl. More recently discovered oil fetches $13.06 per bbl. The companies are accused of selling the old oil to refineries for the new-oil prices...
...DOE's ever multiplying regulations have turned the distinction between old and new into a lawyer's romper room. Complains an attorney for one of the companies: "The Government issues the regulations and leaves us to interpret them. Then the regulators sit down to decide what they meant in the first place, and they get as confused...
...DOE investigators say that the companies just played fast and loose in interpreting the rules. One mind-boggling example of the old-new complexity: a now revised regulation stating that all petroleum pumped from a field that had even one well drilled before 1973 must be classified as being old oil. The idea was to stop companies from getting new-oil prices by drilling new wells into old reservoirs after 1973. The companies are accused of, among other things, ignoring this provision whenever they actually struck new oil in an old-oil field. Instead of selling...