a019  2318  20 Feb 79
PM-Washington Briefs,400
    WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans are being called on to make the maximum
effort to conserve energy so that the country will become less
dependent on coal, nuclear power and other fuels.
    The Council on Environmental Quality issued that call Tuesday,
saying energy consumption does not need to continue rising at the same
rate as economic expansion. In a report reviewing existing studies,
the council said the gross national product could expand by 60 to 90
percent over the next 20 years even if the energy supply only
increased by 10 to 15 percent. Council Chairman Charles Warren said
energy conservation at any level produces benefits.
    ---
Laserphoto WX1
    WASHINGTON (AP) - A cannon boomed a 19-gun salute, riflemen fired
three volleys and a lone bugler played ''Taps'' on a snow-covered
hillside at Arlington National Cemetery as Ambassador Adolph Dubs was
buried.
    Dubs, ambassador to Afghanistan, was killed in a gunfight after
being kidnapped in Kabul last week. Vice President Walter F. Mondale,
Mrs. Rosalynn Carter and Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance joined
Dubs' widow and daughter at Tuesday's funeral services in Arlington.
    ---
    WASHINGTON (AP) - G. William Miller, the chairman of the Federal
Reserve Board, says he believes ''there are no economic indicators
pointing to a recession in 1979.''
    Miller made the comment in an annual report issued by the board
Tuesday. He said the agency's objective this year ''is to foster
financial conditions conducive to a continued, but more moderate
economic expansion during 1979, that should permit a gradual winding
down of inflation and the maintenance of the stronger position of the
dollar in international exchange markets.''
    ---
    WASHINGTON (AP) - The Internal Revenue Service is getting a cool
congressional reception to its proposal to crack down on private
schools that discriminate racially.
    At a House hearing Tuesday on the proposal to eliminate the tax-free
status of such schools, Rep. Thomas B. Evans Jr., R-Del., called the
plan ''a sham.'' Rep. John B. Anderson, R-Ill., said his constituents
are concerned about ''an intrusive government meddling in the
operation of their religious schools.''
    
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n090  1629  20 Feb 79
 
AM-ENERGY 2takes
(BizDay)
By RICHARD T. HALLORAN
c. 1979 N.Y. Times News Service
    WASHINGTON - The President's Council on Environmental Quality
reported Tuesday that ''the United States can do well, indeed
prosper, on much less energy than has been commonly supposed.''
    The council, in a report, argued that ''the means are available to
wring far more consumer goods and services out of each unit of fuel
that we use, whether it be a barrel of oil or a ton of coal or
uranium.''
    Advocating much greater energy productivity, the council said it
meant ''getting more from the energy we use, not a back-to-the-caves
reduction in amenities.''
    With ''a moderate effort,'' the report said, ''our energy
consumption in the year 2000 need not exceed current use by more than
about 25 percent.'' With a ''determined effort, it need not increase
by more than about 10-15 percent,'' it continued.
    The report, entitled ''The Good News About Energy,'' added another
assessment of a wide-ranging and continuing debate about the future
of energy policy. It was signed by the council's chairman, Charles
Warren, and the other two members, Gus Speth and Jane Yarn.
    The Council on Environmental Quality is a White House advisory body
without executive or regulatory authority and is not connected with
the Environmental Protection Agency, which is a separate regulatory
agency authorized to set and enforce environmental standards.
    In the main, the council report agrees with a recent view expressed
by Secretary of Energy James R. Schlesinger. In testimony on Capitol
Hill, Schlesinger said that ''from 1975 to 1977, energy consumption
has grown only 70 percent as fast as the GNP (gross national
product).'' He said that industry had increased its output 15 percent
annually while consuming only 5 percent more energy.
    ''This significant development means the nation is putting
conservation into practice,'' Schlesinger said. ''There is no longer
a need to assume that economic vitality is inevitably tied to
lock-step increases in energy use.''
    Oil companies and other producers of energy often contend that while
conservation is helpful, the only realistic solution to the energy
crisis is to produce more energy and in as many forms as possible.
    On the other hand, a growing number of politicians, academicians,
and proponents of decentralized government advocate a slow or even
zero-growth in the economy and in the production of energy except for
certain forms, such as solar energy.
    The environmental council's report thus seemed to take a middle
ground between the two and postulated two scenarios, one closer to
the zero-growth position and the other tending toward the position of
the energy producers.
    The report suggested that ''the tremendous difficulties posed by
high energy growth to the environment and the economy can largely be
avoided.'' Among the estimated effects:
    - Instead of 500 new coal and nuclear power plants, the nation could
get by with 125, thus reducing pollution, radiation hazards, and the
disruption of land.
    - Imports of oil and gas can be cut, lessening the nation's reliance
on vulnerable sources and reducing the deficit in the balance of
trade.
    - More capital can be made available for investments that increase
employment.
    - Resources for the future can be saved.
    (MORE)
    
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