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High Oil Prices Spark Memories of 1979 Crisis

There were reports of shortages of wood stoves, concerns over the high cost of gasoline, diesel fuel and home heating oil and the Governor established a special energy task force to recommend ways to move Maine away from dependence on imported oil. It does sound like this summer, but as Mal Leary reports, it was 1979 and the crisis was the Iranian oil embargo.

More than a hundred truckers circled Capitol Park next to the State House to protest the high cost of diesel fuel and independent truckers had stopped hauling goods. Diesel had just spiked at a dollar a gallon and truckers were angry. Cliff Pottle was President of the Independent Truckers Association. “It’s going to be a hard situation, really. We’ve been coming down for two weeks. No balance. And we hope we can continue to do the same thing. I don't know."

The state energy office was tracking gasoline prices; they had increased from sixty cents a gallon to ninety cents a gallon in less than three months. Home heating oil was used by an estimated 85 percent of Maine homes, and it was costing homeowners more than a dollar a gallon. Prices had spiked in the last months of the winter and Lucille Simpson of York County Community Action told lawmakers that seniors were hard hit and often had to choose between food, medicine and staying warm. “We’ve had them in the hospital; different ones undergoing treatment for malnutrition. We have had them taken to the hospital from the results of being totally without fuel in subzero weather.”

Low income advocates urged both federal and state action. Neil Shankman was executive director of Pine Tree Legal Assistance and called for emergency action by the Congress and the Legislature. “At this point, Pine Tree is almost taking a role like Paul Revere, saying that the fuel oil crisis is coming and people had better start getting themselves together. And start getting ready to deal with it. The time is now to get everyone moving in the right direction.”

The state launched a home energy audit program to help Mainers figure out what they could do to weatherize their homes. Thousands participated in the Residential Energy Assistance Program from the state Office of Energy Resources. Renee Pitofsky updated reporters on the audit findings. “The major points we’re finding so far with the homes are weather stripping and calking is needed. Some type of insulation and usually storm doors and windows. Typically we find that the people will have some of the windows in their homes having storm doors and windows, but not all of them.”

Maine's congressional delegation, Sen. Ed Muskie, Sen. William Cohen, Congressman David Emery and Congresswoman Olympia Snowe all supported additional federal emergency  aid to the states, but their efforts failed. Then Gov. Joseph Brennan called the legislature into an emergency session to appropriate state aid of a $100 a month for three months. “I can soberly and truthfully say that the situation we face this winter for many of our citizens, and particularly many elderly citizens is truly a matter of life and death.”

Brennan's proposal allocated federal funds and added state dollars for both weatherization and direct aid to poor Mainers. It also allowed the use of the state grant to buy a wood stove in an attempt to encourage the use of Maine energy resources. But the legislature, closely split between republicans and democrats, failed to get the two thirds vote needed to pass Brennan's emergency plan. GOP Senate Leader Bennett Katz bristled at Brennan's threat to bring lawmakers back for a second special session. “I would predict that there will not be any consensus and that we will have a second failure on our hands. We’ve got 184 legislators come from all over the state and it requires perhaps more compromising than we have done to get two thirds of such a group.”

Brennan went directly to Mainers appealing for passage of his plan. He addressed the state on a broadcast carried live on both TV and radio. He said the state was in crisis and the legislature needed to set aside partisan politics and pass emergency aid. “The greatest problem we face in Maine tonight is our ability to pay for our fuel bills. Our research indicates that as many as 90,000 Maine households have a family income that could qualify them for federal or state assistance.” Lawmakers met again in special session, and after a few days of wrangling, passed a $17 million package. Brennan addressed the House after passage of the measure. “The bill that has been passed is not as much as we should do and it’s not as much as we could do. But it is apparently the best that we can do.”

Brennan went on to say he would propose at the next regular session that state buildings be shifted from oil heat to alternative fuels, suggesting wood furnaces as a possibility. He sought funding, but the Iranian oil embargo ended. Fuel prices dropped and alternative energy became more expensive than the then cheap imported oil.  Current Gov. John Baldacci was in college that year.  But in 2008, facing a similar crisis, Baldacci says Maine is undertaking similar steps: shifting some of its fuel use to Maine-based sources. And he says he will be proposing more. He is determined the lessons of thirty years ago will not be forgotten by his administration. “My hope is when we look back thirty years from now is you’ll see us less dependant on petroleum for our business and homes and individually. Any you’ll see us being much more vibrant, much more economic development taking place, and our national security being reinforced when you look from thirty years out."

Baldacci says he is not ready to spell out his proposals, and how they will be funded. For MPBN News, I’m Mal Leary.

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