ENERGY: A Move Toward Sharing

A promising development on the energy front:

Last week the Energy Coordinating Group, whose members include the U.S., Canada, Japan and nine Western European oil-importing nations, announced a major stride toward a unified, help-thy-friend energy policy. Meeting in Brussels under the chairmanship of Belgian Diplomat Vicomte Etienne Davignon, 41, a leading Common Market policymaker, the ECG accepted in principle a U.S.-sponsored proposal for sharing and conserving oil supplies during future energy emergencies.

If oil imports in any member country drop below a still-to-be determined threshold, either as the result of a selective boycott or a general cutback in deliveries, the sharing will start. For example, if Canada and Norway could meet 100% of their oil needs and all other ECG members only 90%, then those two countries would share their oil until the proportion of requirements fulfilled was the same in all countries. The precise details of this and other procedures, such as a method for eliminating the need for time-consuming approval by each parliament should an emergency hit, remain to be smoothed out in future meetings, over which Davignon will preside.

Problems remain, of course. The ECG, established last February at the Washington Energy Conference organized by Henry Kissinger, had to shelve its plan for a conference between countries that produce and consume oil because the Arab governments do not want to risk a confrontation over prices. And while France has been warming toward the ECG since the election of Valêry Giscard d’Estaing, and even quietly participating in some of the group’s projects, it still refuses to join. Though far from ironclad, the agreement indicates that unity among the world’s main oil consumers is more than a pipe dream.