Evening star., 1946-12-02
y. S. Will Use Big-Inch Pipelines
To Bring Natural Gas Into East
To Ease Coal Crisis Krug Says
10000, 1000 Feet
Per Day Available.
Time Is Uncertain
By Don S. Worren

Immediate use of the Big Incl
and Little Big Inch wartime oi
pipeline for transporting natura
gas to the Central and Eastern
areas, to help relieve the Goa
crisis, is being arranged, Secre'
tary of the Interior Krug an
nounced this afternoon.
Appearing before the House Sur
plus Property Committee, Secretar.
Krug told the committee letters wer,
sent this morning to the War Asset
Administration and the Fedora
Power Commission requesting sucl
temporary use of the big pipe lines
The declaration of intent, to carr.
out this plan was now being pre-
pared, he said by the WAA.
Will Help Emergency.
Secretary Krug said the step wa:
taken in the light of the fuel emer.
gency. The natural gas, he said
will be a help, but not an answer
to the fuel emergency"
Within five or six days after the
plan is consummated, Secretary
Krug said, it is hoped that $4,000, 600
cubic feet of gas would be sent
through the pipe lines. He added
that he hoped this would be boosted
to 100000 cubic feet day with
in two or three weeks. Within As
days, he said, it was hoped to boost
the quantity to 15o,00O,000 cubic feet
day.
The plan of the Interior Depart
ment-which has responsibility for
the soft coal mines, where the strike
has stopped production-contem-
plates leasing the two pipe lines for
the period of the emergency to the
Tennessee Gas & Transmission Co.
This company now operates a pri-
vate line from the Texas gas fields
to West Virginia.
Lines Can Be Tapped.
Chairman Slaughter asked if this
would mean supplying extra gas
only to the Ohio and Appalachian
areas. Secretary Krug replied the
effect would be broader than that
because the big pipe lines could be
tapped and the gas used where most
needed.
The Interior Secretary said he
fgreed with earlier estimates that
to supply the 100,00o,000 cubic feet
of gas day would be about suff-
cient to supply the needs of a city
the size of Toledo. Fifty million
cubic feet of gas day, he said. is
about the equivalent of 1000 tons
Of coal.
IN other words" commented
Chairman Slaughter, fif you are
freezing, every little bit of fuel
helps?"
yes, sir" said Mr. Krug.
To meet the coal shortage, the In
terror Secretary added, every pos
sible means of conservation and use
of substitutes is important.
Earlier witnesses at the pipeline
hearing had told the committee that
to keep speculative and monopol-
istic practices out of the future use
of the pipelines, they should be SOLD
to a non-profit, non-stock mutual
cooperative"
These proposals were offered by
John Bauer, one of the 16 bidders
for the wartime pipelines, ano
Thurman Arnold, former chief oil
the Justice Department Antitrust
Division. They are associated WITH
James Imbrie, David Cushman Coyls
and others in the proposed mutual
cooperative plan.
The cooperative proposed to use
the lines for the transportation OF
oil and oil products and plans the
construction of a new pipeline, OF al
least 80 inches in diameter, to trans
port natural gas from the Texas
fields to the Northeast Seaboard
area. Mr.. Arnold argued the CO.
operative plan was the only possible
way" in which Eastern consumers
could be given cheap natural gas
supplies.
Mr. Arnold and Mr.. Bauer argued
that the big pipelines should be used
in the ''public interest and stressed
that their plan contemplates nc
profits at all and that rates would
be fixed only to cover operating
expenses, amortization and other
such costs, including taxes. The
mutual cooperative plan contem-
plates a long-term loan from the
Government to cover the entire cost
of the price to be paid the Govern
merit for the lines.
Price Issue Discussed.
The original bid of the co-opera-
tive was $4,000, 900, but Mr.. Bauer
said this was subject to adjustment
on negotiation with the War Assets
Administration He said the coop
coild pay even more than the
s113,700,000 price fixed by WAA
Administrator Robert M Littlejohn
He garned, however, the higher the
price the more limitations there
would be on the public purposes
of the plan of the cooperative.
The committee asked Mr.. Arnold
II he thought the oil companies
would. participate in the co-opera-
tive plan. Mr.. Arnold replied that
on the. basis of the superior ef-
ficiency" of the cooperative ar
rangernent he would predict the oil
companies could not refuse to use
the services.
"unless there was conspiracy,
he added, saying he thought that
would not develop,