“Putting Americans back to work” has been selected by House Speaker Thomas O’Neill as the first priority of the new Congress. Democratic Congressmen started to work on jobs legislation even without waiting for Jimmy Carter to send his official economic package from the White House.
The trouble with some Democrats, however, is their tunnel vision in regard to
how to create jobs. They think only in terms of putting more people on the government payroll. All that accomplishes is to transfer dollars from same taxpayers’ pockets into others.
What is needed is imaginative thinking to stimulate jobs through the free enterprise system. Jobs in the private sector spring from newly created wealth and do not place new burdens on the already hard-pressed taxpayers.
President Carter has a unique opportunity to create 50,000 jobs in the private
sector without costing the taxpayers any money — if he only has the vision to make the right decision.
In September when oil starts flowing through the Alaskan pipeline, the natural gas that comes out of the ground along with the oil will be placed in existing underground reservoirs. In a matter of months, those reservoirs will be filled and the natural gas must be piped somewhere. The question is, where and by what route?
There are three routes under consideration by the Federal Power Commission. The first is known as the Arctic gas proposal, which calls for building a pipeline across the Alaskan wilderness, through the Yukon and Saskatchewan in Canada, for delivery at the northern border of Michigan and Wisconsin.
The second route, called the northwest energy project, would send the natural gas from Fairbanks, Alaska, through western Canada, with delivery on the northern border of Washington State and Idaho.
The third plan is the all-American route. It calls for building a natural gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to a port near Valdez (which is ice-free 365 days of the year), and then shipping it by refrigerated tankers for delivery at Point Conception in southern California.
The all-American route would stimulate at least 20,000 jobs to build the natural gas pipeline in Alaska paralleling the oil pipeline, plus 30,000 jobs in the United States to make the pipe, to build the gas tankers, and to lay such additional gas pipeline as would be needed. This would reduce unemployment, especially in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Massachusetts, Texas, California, and other construction areas.
If the Federal Power Commission selects one of the Canadian routes, we would be subject to having our gas supply reduced or cut off by political decisions of the Canadian government. This would be most unwise at this time of bitter internal dissension in Canada.
Using either of the Canadian routes would also mean that the jobs created by our money would be in Canada instead of in the United States, and Canada would buy the pipe from Red China and Japan instead of from American plants. This would cause us to suffer a further unfavorable balance of trade.
Canadian lobbyists are working overtime in behalf of their interests. The Federal Power Commission is due to make its decision by May, after which the final decision must be made by President Carter and passed by Congress.
The right decision can be a significant step toward achieving three of our most important national objectives: cutting down unemployment, making America economically self-sufficient, and reducing the flow of dollars out of our country.
