US Presidency
1977

These proposals would provide adequate incentives for exploration and production of domestic oil and gas, but some of the oil companies want much more, tens of billions of dollars more. They want greatly increased prices for old oil and gas, energy supplies which have already been discovered and which are being produced now. They want immediate and permanent deregulation of gas prices, which would cost consumers $ 70 billion or more between now and 1985. They want even higher prices than those we've proposed for new gas and oil, and they want the higher prices sooner. They want lower taxes on their profits. These are all controversial questions, and the congressional debates, as you can well imagine, are intense. The political pressures are great because the stakes are so high, billions and billions of dollars. We should reward individuals and companies who discover and produce new oil and gas, but we must not give them huge windfall profits on their existing wells at the expense of the American people.