DOE Effort To Enforce Crude Oil Pricing Regulations

GAO continues to review the Department of Energy's (DOE) efforts to enforce the crude oil pricing regulations established under the authority of the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act of 1973. Although crude oil and refined products have been deregulated, DOE is still responsible for ensuring that, during the period that the regulations were in effect, the oil industry complied with those regulations. The Office of Enforcement has adopted a dollar-driven strategy which calls for it to pursue the largest identified violations first and to complete its audit work on all cases which remained open as of February 28, 1981. Although this is a reasonable strategy to follow, the resources being allocated to carry out the plan are considerably less than intended by the House Appropriations Committee and provided for by Congress. Problems which make this task even more difficult include: (1) the loss of experienced staff; (2) low staff morale; (3) the large number of companies refusing DOE access to their records; and (4) the failure to issue proposed remedial orders in an expeditious manner. These problems make it obvious that a major portion of enforcement work will remain for fiscal year 1982. However, reductions in force (RIF's) caused by the Administration's budget cuts will make it difficult to complete DOE efforts to enforce pricing regulations. The RIF's are also contrary to congressional intent and to specific House Appropriations Committee mandates.