Preliminary analysis of federal energy emergency preparedness strategies: The EPAA experience and current programs at the department of energy

The Standby Petroleum Allocation Act of 1982 (SPAA), which President Reagan vetoed on 20 March 1983, would have restored to the President authority to impose oil price controls and allocations in the event of an oil shortfall. The nation's previous experience with regulation of oil markets demonstrates that price and allocation controls are the wrong way to deal with energy emergencies. The controls discouraged domestic oil production, encouraged oil consumption and imports, and gave rise to shortages in petroleum product markets. The controls created an expensive bureaucracy which imposed inequities, hardships, and unnecessary costs on the economy. The SPAA contains virtually the same features that characterized the two major regulatory acts of the 1970s. Contingency planning at the Department of Energy (DOE) today is premised on free market responses and is directed at development of adequate oil stocks, the rapid dissemination of information, support of international programs to which the United States is a signatory, and coordination with the Department of Defense and other federal agencies, the states and localities, and the private sector.