U.S. Energy Agency Chief Quits

Rayburn Hanzlik has resigned as head of the Energy Regulatory Administration, the agency in charge of trying to recover billions of dollars in overcharges on federally controlled oil prices.

The departure of Hanzlik, an unsuccessful candidate for the 1980 Republican Senate nomination in California, comes a week after his boss, Energy Secretary James S. Herrington, criticized his department in a speech to some Texas oilmen.

Hanzlik denied that the speech had prompted his departure. “I told the secretary in late May that I wanted to be out by the end of the summer,” he said. Hanzlik, 47, a former Pasadena attorney, has expressed a desire to return to law practice.

The regulatory administration is devoted primarily to settling more than $6 billion in overcharge claims against oil companies when petroleum was under federal price controls from 1973 to 1981. The controls were abolished in 1981.