CONGRESSMAN SAYS U.S. UNPREPARED FOR OIL CUTOFF
Rep. Mike Synar said today that while
President Reagan is ready to use military force to protect
Kuwait tankers in the Gulf, the United States is ill-prepared
at home to deal with a new energy crisis.
    Synar, Democrat of Oklahoma, made his remarks in comments
on a study by the General Accounting Office (GAO) on the U.S.
participation in the 1985 test of the emergency oil sharing
program of the International Energy Agency.
    The IEA, an alliance of 21 oil consuming countries, was
formed after the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo to find ways to deal
with any future oil cutoff.
    Synar said, "the president is prepared to take military
action to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers but has been unwilling to
take less dangerous, equally-important action to prepare our
nation for the next energy crisis."
    Reagan said the U.S. military would protect Kuwaiti oilers
to assure the West of a continuing supply of Middle East oil,
increasingly being threatened by the Iranian-Iraqi war. Synar,
who asked for the GAO report after criticism of U.S. action in
a previous IEA test, said the United States successfully
advocated a test limited to training participants in oil
sharing procedures and the system's mechanical aspects.
 Reuter
