February 21, 1974

Dem members of HR Judiciary Com decide to seek specific items of Watergate evidence from White House to test Pres Nixon's willingness to cooperate with HR impeachment inquiry; reptdly discuss at closed party caucus likelihood of eventual confrontation with White House over impeachment; agree informally to adopt position that White House has no authority to recommend or pass judgment on procedures com will follow in conducting investigation; implicit in request for specific items would be warning that failure by White House to comply voluntarily with it would lead to issuance of com subpoena; Dems' determination to accelerate inquiry is also illustrated by their reptd consensus on 2 procedural issues: how to define impeachable misconduct by a Pres and how to assure continued confidentiality of any evidence sought by com; com Chmn P W Rodino Jr, who has announced plans for Feb 21 public hearing on definition of impeachable misconduct, says 50-page brief being prepared by com counsel John Doar and Albert E Jenner Jr should 'speak for itself'; Doar and Jenner are reptdly prepared to contend that Const provides for broad view of impeachment and that a Pres may be held to account for actions that are contrary to public interest but not necessarily indictable criminal offenses; Reprs R F Drinan and J F Seiberling comment (L)

Fed energy officials concerned over what they consider misinterpretation of amt of relief provided through emergency allocation of new gasoline supplies to 20 states hard hit by shortages; take issue with implication of several published analyses showing that in many of those states additional gasoline will amt only to about 1 gal per auto; contend new gasoline is going to be put under control of Govs to help solve spot shortages; are also concerned over misinterpretation of energy chief William E Simon's statement that gasoline inventories total 219 million bbls, of which additional supplies released to states represent less than 1%; note that much of gasoline included in inventory figures is in distribution system and that nation cannot have less than 80 million bbls in distribution system; note also that oil cos must build up gasoline inventories for summer mos; correct figures on amt of extra gasoline states will be receiving, noting that allocations for several states announced on Feb 19 includes some gasoline already promised states; Simon says he may release more gasoline if necessary and appears to soften opposition to mandatory gasoline rationing, asserting Govt may have to switch from allocation system to rationing if spot shortages intensify and become more widespread; confusion over allocation announcement is attributed to office's move to new quarters (M)

copper futures prices rise 3c a lb daily limit with near March delivery closing at historic high of $1.10 a lb; silver speculators, nervous over high silve prices, are switching over to copper; graph (S)

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