Presidential Papers, Doc#47 To Hugh Roy Cullen, 23 [<EM>February 1957</EM>]. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #47; [February 23, 1957]
To Hugh Roy Cullen
Series: EM, AWF, Name Series
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace
Part I: A New Beginning, Old Problems; January 1957 to May 1957
Chapter 1: The Mideast and the Eisenhower Doctrine

 

Dear Roy:1 Thank you for your letter about the natural gas legislation.2 The bill that was drafted by the group representing the three segments of the industry--producers, pipelines, and distributing utilities--is presently being reviewed within the Executive Branch. When I have the comments of the interested agencies, I will then be in a position to determine what course to pursue.3

With best wishes, Sincerely

1 Hugh Roy Cullen, Texas oil millionaire and philanthropist, was president of Quintana Petroleum Corporation (see Galambos, Columbia University, no. 602). White House aide Gerald D. Morgan drafted this letter for the President.

2 Cullen had written Eisenhower on February 21, 1957 (AWF/N), to urge support for the natural gas legislation pending in Congress. Cullen favored the bill because it was "a compromise of the views of all branches of the industry" and afforded the consumer "maximum protection." The new bill needed Eisenhower's active support if it was to be passed, Cullen wrote, saying that only a "strong statement" from the President in support of the bill "can prevent it from becoming a political football." Enactment of the legislation would "benefit the nation," Cullen said, by leading to the development of additional reserves of natural gas "when the chaotic conditions arising from the present utility type regulation of the production of gas are corrected." Eisenhower had recommended new legislation to Congress following his veto of the Harris-Fulbright natural gas bill in 1956 due to the scandalous efforts by the oil industry to influence the Senate vote (see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 1763, 1748, and 1767).

In January 1957 the President had told Congress that "Legislation freeing gas producers from public utility-type regulation is essential if the incentives to find and develop new supplies of gas are to be preserved and sales of gas to interstate markets are not to be discouraged. . . . " The new gas legislation followed the 1956 bill in exempting independent producers and gatherers of natural gas from federal rate-of-return regulation, while empowering the Federal Power Commission (FPC)to regulate producer rates directly through approval of pipeline costs (see Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1957, p. 56; see also Congressional Quarterly Almanac, vol. XIII, 1957, pp. 665 - 66; M. Elizabeth Sanders, The Regulation of Natural Gas: Policy and Politics, 1938 - 1978 [Philadelphia, 1981], pp. 105 - 6; and Edith T. Carper, "Lobbying and the Natural Gas Bill" in Case Studies in American Government, Edwin A. Bock and Alan K. Campbell, eds. [N.J., 1962], pp. 175 - 222).

3 For developments see no. 169.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Hugh Roy Cullen, 23 [February 1957]. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 47. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/47.cfm

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