perm filename ENERGY.NS[CUR,JMC] blob sn#114412 filedate 1974-08-06 generic text, type T, neo UTF8
a030  0012  06 Aug 74
Project Independence 270
By TOM SIEBERT
Associated Press Writer
    DENVER (AP) - Seeking ways to make the nation less dependent on
foreign oil, the Federal Energy Administration opens a series of
public hearings today on developing the nation's own energy wealth.
    The Denver meetings will consider the coal, oil shale and uranium
riches of the Rocky Mountain states.
    Energy Administrator John C. Sawhill opens the four-day session
here, which will bring testimony from oil and mining experts,
environmentalists and government officials from the region.
    The Denver hearings and nine more scheduled later this summer and
fall in other cities are to help the FEA create a blueprint for the
Nixon administration's crash program in energy self-sufficiency.
    Critics charge, however, that the Project Independence hearings are
just political ''window dressing'' and that a policy decision has
already been made to exploit fossil fuels at the expense of the
environment.
    They also say the Nov. 1 deadline for the FEA blueprint is too
close to allow consideration of public testimony on alternatives.
    But Sawhill and FEA spokesmen say ideas and information developed
in the hearings will be ''fully integrated'' into the recommendations
made to the White House.
    Project Independence has four basic goals: finding ways to speed
development of domestic resources; dampening soaring U.S. energy
demands; planning for emergency fuel storage and allocation programs
to meet crises; and stabilizing international relations to reduce
chances of another Arab oil embargo.
    Later hearings are set for New York, Boston, Seattle, Chicago,
Kansas City, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
    
0312aED 08-06
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