January 31, 1977

Antonio R Sanchez Jr and other Tex natural‐gas producers withhold gas from regulated interstate mkt because sales to fellow Texans are uncontrolled; local homeowners and farmers can often not afford local gas and resent out‐of‐state shipments at low prices; Tex RR Comm says number of wells drilled doubled over past 4 yrs as intrastate prices rose; producers are leery of Pres Carter's emergency gas plan (M)

Residents of Fayette County, Pa, situated atop huge coal reserve, suffer acute fuel shortage because they have switched to natural gas and oil; map; illus (S)

Carter says he did not know about State Dept statement on Sakharov but it expressed his attitude; says US will not ‘back down’ on human rights but stresses desire not to aggravate relations with USSR; rejects ‘publicity stunts meant to goad’ or ‘preaching to’ other govts (M)

Fed officials say that threat of gas shortages for homes appears to be receding, and cancellation of planned cutoff of service suddenly saves 71,000 jobs in NYC and Westchester; fierce winter cold keeps more than 1.5‐million workers idle nationwide and may force more from their jobs later in wk; in Ohio, 1‐million workers, or 25% of work force have been laid off; in NJ, where 300,000 to 400,000 workers have already been idled, Public Utilities Comm pres Joel R Jacobson asserts that ‘domino effect’ on related workers might bring total up to 750,000 this wk (M)

illus of Buffalo, NY, Mayor Stanley M Makowsky with Gov Carey after Jan 28 blizzard (S)