Conversation 890-021

TapeTape 890StartFriday, March 30, 1973 at 12:21 PMEndFriday, March 30, 1973 at 12:30 PMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Holifield, Chet;  McGuire, Perkins;  Ash, Roy L.;  Timmons, William E.Recording deviceOval Office

On March 30, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Chet Holifield, Perkins McGuire, Roy L. Ash, and William E. Timmons met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:21 pm to 12:30 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 890-021 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 890-21

Date: March 30, 1973
Time: 12:21 pm - 12:30 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Perkins McGuire, Chet Holifield, Roy L. Ash and William E. Timmons.
The White House photographer was present at the beginning of the meeting.

       Greetings

       Photographs

       Report on government procurement
            -President’s reading
            -Summary
            -Savings for government
                                       -36-

             NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                (rev. August-2010)

        -Procurement policies
             -Ash
             -Competition for bids
                   -Change to non-competitive level
                   -Savings for government
             -Investment
                   -Legislation
        -Recommendations
        -Changes in regulations
             -Solidifying standards
             -Administration action
                   -Executive Order
                   -Legislation
             -Industry
                   -Quality of leadership
                   -President’s qualifications
             -Hoover Commission

Commission on Government Procurement
    -President’s gratitude
    -McGuire's tenure as chairman
          -Achievements
                -Agreements
    -Report
          -Follow-up by Ash

Gifts
        -Ashtray
              -Smoking
        -Cufflinks
        -Pins
              -Wives
        -Ashtray

Energy
     -Breeder reactor
     -Analysis by Joint Committee Staff
          -William E. Simon [?]
     -Nuclear power
          -A meeting with George P. Shultz
                                             -37-

                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                      (rev. August-2010)
                                                            Conversation No. 890-21 (cont’d)

                    -Charles J. DiBona
                    -Imbalance of trade
              -Charts of energy sources
                    -Forecasts
                           -Coal
                                 -Tripled strip mining
                           -Natural gas
                           -Oil
                                 -Alaska
                           -Gap
                           -US usage
                                 -Interior Department
                           -Work of Joint Committee staff
              -Electricity
                    -Uranium
                    -Fossil fuels [?]
              -Analysis of energy sources
                    -Consultant
                           -Petroleum engineer
                    -Dissemination
                           -California
                           -Board of Standard Oil
                           -Robert O. Anderson
                           -Atlantic Richfield Company [ARCO]
                           -DiBona
                    -Report to President
                           -Bipartisan meeting with President

McGuire, et. al., left at 12:30 pm.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

There's a picture here.
Let's come over.
There's a place here.
Here.
I think so.
We've got a summary here.
We don't want to talk to you.
It's a little long.
Oh, yeah, there's a summary.
It's a huge summary.
How long does it take to finish?
About two and a half years.
Just a little bit.
I think it is we know in one small item you can save $100 million a year without question.
Well, I think that's right.
This one thing, we're just talking with Roy about it, lifting the level of non-competitive procurement from $2,500, which was set about 15 years ago, to $10,000, will save $100 million a year.
Minimum.
Minimum, of course.
I mean, $2,500 compared to $10,000.
Chances are you know some of this.
And my guess is $10,000 is what $2,500 was.
Yes, it is.
As a matter of fact, this has a little push in it.
I think the figures around me will not be something like that.
But we are setting it so because we know we're going to hedge.
And we say the executive should be able to do it.
We say it should be used by the authority to adjust it.
The president should be able to do it.
to judge from time to time in relation to that.
You mean this legislation requires this?
Yes.
Yes, there is.
Then get it.
Oh, yes.
We'll be doing it some other time.
But it's tough right now.
There is this thing divided into several segments.
There's about 151 recommendations and about 67 points.
The legislation has 67 bills, that means 67 points, and some of them can be solidified into one bill, you know.
But this is a great area there where
administrative rules and regulations can be changed and solidified and counseling is going on.
So this can be done by administrative action.
There's also quite an area in there that can be done by a presidential executive order.
16% can be done by the executive order.
So there is a big deal that we can do.
And the legislation will go as well.
I think I'm certain, Mr. President, you're not ready for it.
That's the big concern of the industry.
Bear in mind they have a part of the staff working as a department.
It's whether or not the club is there to see that it's done and not let it drag out too long.
And it's going to take a tough, tough guy.
No, of course, the whole commission had a lot of things in this, but just to eat it together.
But from your point of view, let me say something.
As a top executive,
I was thinking once I'm going to give you the whole picture of what you see right now, and then I'm going to get up on the hill with all these ideas.
I mean, why do you want me to say that?
Let me say that you can't repay costs of works, taxes, and so forth.
Well, I want to say this on this occasion that if you could have selected a person to chair that commission, that would have chaired it with more patience and more discernment and keeping the boys from violating each other's abilities on that current environment.
And I think he did a good job.
And we worked together on this thing.
And we have, it probably wouldn't satisfy any one of the 12 members completely, naturally, but we did, we had a, we had a,
an amazing amount of agreement, and where there was a disagreement, why we allowed, we had to move it for the privilege of any dissenter to put his opinion there.
So we thought we did pretty well.
Roy, are you ready yet?
I'm not ready yet, but I will.
You follow up.
I will, good.
I'll ask you to hold me accountable, I'm sure.
All right, here's your pay.
That's all you get.
Thank you very much.
I'll have to take out a little... No, no, that's okay.
You may have already got it.
I think I may have given you a bit.
You can give it to somebody else.
Go ahead and fertilize it.
If you've got these already checked, you probably have one for your wife.
Then this is for, you know, one of your customers.
These are for your wife and one for your secretary.
Same for you.
These are nudes.
You don't have the nudes.
These are right off the fly.
And this is off the floor.
It doesn't have my name on it, by the way.
You're still involved with Reader React?
What do you mean?
You told me to get it done.
I got a hold of him.
I got a hold of him.
You know, we've made an analysis of this situation.
I talked to a lot of people.
And Simon, I think, is going to.
Thank you, sir.
Have you done this one?
Sure, I have.
1975 to the year 2000.
This shows coal into your crippled strip line, which will be difficult.
This shows the gas.
This is the last one.
And this is the indication for future, but we still have a 30-day gap.
A year gap.
This is how long?
This is the year 2000.
This is the 22nd year.
This is just looking at the whole thing.
Now this is based on the lowest possible forecast.
Here's your map of the total countable forecast of 120 million barrels a day.
And here's what we're using.
This is the map for about year 87, which is the most conservative.
You've got the Department of Interior and Office of Strategic All-Mounts.
We're taking the most conservative.
And yet it gives us...
It gives us a difference between the 36 million barrels that we're producing now.
That's oil, coal, and gas, you see.
And what we're going to need is the trends.
This has been the work of the Joint Committee staff, backed up with 10 years of study of the energy consequences.
Well, in 1963, when we started to jump on, when we started looking at the possibility of creating electricity with uranium, we made a complete study of it and projected the trends to the possibility of fossil fuels and all that sort of thing.
And we've kept at this all the way along.
This is the latest analysis, and it's done by...
consultant, petroleum engineer, and he's based on, known that he's a member of the staff.
He is a member of the staff.
He is a consultant on his own basis.
We're giving it this morning to California.
My assistant is to the board of the standard oil.
And two weeks ago, I gave it to Bob Anderson at Atlanta Bridge Steel, a lot of them.
And he said that this is the best and the most complete summation of the whole energy problem that he's ever seen.
Good.
Good morning.
See, the, the, the farmers from Holyfield, you put in a contract with this to be developed.
Would you do that?
We'll, we'll go on.
It is, at the moment, it is our, our goal.
The priorities are not what it's signed or what it's all working on, but I'd like for it, the moment we get it, since it's a few years before it leaves, we appreciate it very much.
And we have the bipartisan meeting on energy, which will be a, it'll be a month before we have it, because everybody will be ready for that time we have it.
We want to be sure that, that you're there.
Thank you for listening to this extraneous material, but it's very important.
We're going to turn some money back to you.
Is that right?
Yeah.
All right.
Don't turn off the chat.
You need to watch it.