THE GUTS SHORTAGE

Mobil bought space in the hometown newspapers of all Members of Congress to publish an open, enlightening and convincing letter on the gasoline shortage. Most of the others kept mum, or even engaged in eco masochism.

Not that they did not know what Mobil knew. Atlantic Richfield president Thornton F. Bradshaw, for example, pointed out the untenable US energy position earlier this year — energy riches beneath the ground, energy poverty above it. He also proposed an energy policy program amounting to the removal of gas and oil pricing constraints until exploration and tapping becomes profitable, disincentives for exporting refineries, a mechanism for rapid resolution of environmental conflicts, long range research on hydrocarbons and alternative sources of energy, and getting the North Slope crude flowing.

Bradshaw's sane proposals do not seem to have reached his public relations department, which continues to ooze out the environmental driwel in some of its The Ideal the Real full page ads. Exxon sent a circular to its stockholders answering the FTC charges, but publicly continued to base its publicity on the philosophy "Please don't buy so much of our gas," as did most other companies. Standard Oil of California, in a report to its stockholders (widely welcomed by the official press in the Arab countries), suggests a change in policy toward the Arab countries to stave offthe energy crisis; more pro Arab and less pro Israel is what this Chamberlainesque attitude (catch phrase even handedness ) amounts to.

Eco masochism instead of enlightenment campaigns in the oil companies' past public relations has now come home to roost: Many people regard the energy crisis as something sudden and unexpected, and therefore "fabricated" and "phony."

Not all PR departments are alike, however. The Cleveland based Warner & Swasey Company (numerical control of machine tools) placed an ad in Forbes under the headline All too many crusaders carry banners with the dollar signs removed, pointing out the inconsistency of the Environmentalists. Unlike Standard Oil and Atlantic Richfield, Warner & Swasey do not figure among the 500 largest US companies. They have other assets: brains and guts.