FUEL PRICE BLUSTER LOOKS ABSURD

They come out like sporting event "boo birds" when the home team falters. Oil and gas prices jump, and governors and attorneys general of some consuming states call news conferences, shake their fists, and demand investigations of the petroleum industry. It's their prerogative. They are government officials. But when prices rise for reasons apparent to anyone, the bluster looks absurd.

It does not require an investigation to determine that the U.S. winter, at least through most of December, has been frigid. Frigid weather has a way of raising demand for heating fuels. There's nothing scandalous about that.

SUPPLY HURT, TOO

And there's no need for an investigation to ascertain that the cold weather affected supply as well as demand. Refineries on the Gulf Coast, unaccustomed to temperatures substantially below the freezing mark, had to curtail operations or shut down altogether. The chill also halted production from many gas wells, crimping supplies and forcing several pipelines to interrupt deliveries, some to customers that no doubt turned to the already strained oil market for substitute fuels. At the same time, an explosion and fire killed two persons and shut down operations at Exxon Co. U.S.A.'s 455,000 b/d Baton Rouge refinery, which had been operating at maximum capacity for distillate output.

In short, unusual weather created a sharp rise in demand for oil and gas at the same time it booby-trapped supply. Under circumstances like those, prices always rise. Before this winter's increase, heating fuel was a bargain by historic standards. If officials must gripe when prices rise under extraordinary and temporary market conditions, they should cheer when fuel is cheap, which is most of the time. But, of course, they do not.

There has been no cover-up of the developments stimulating oil and gas prices. It all appeared in the pages of this and many other publications. Nor is it a secret that Europe has been unusually warm, so product in surplus there soon will find its way to the temporarily short U.S. market. Meanwhile, gas is flowing again. Temperatures have climbed.

OFFICIALS BETTER HURRY

So state officials should rush their investigations if they hope to reap any political hay from the latest round of consumer discontent. Last spring, when gasoline prices spurted amid the driving season's start and distribution uncertainties following the Exxon Valdez crude spill, they didn't move quickly enough. About the time the righteous protests reached full whine, prices settled back down.

Maybe heating fuel prices will subside later this winter; maybe not. It all depends, as indignant state officials should know by now, on the market. Meantime, producers, consumers, and officials elsewhere should treat petroleum price whiners as professional athletes treat boo birds: Ignore them.