CRISIS IN THE PERSIAN GULF : Administration Doesn’t Plan to Ration Gasoline if Shortages Develop : Energy: Congress agrees that the complex price and supply controls imposed during the 1979 shortage caused more problems than they were worth.

The Bush Administration has no plans to ration gasoline and other petroleum products in the United States even if world oil supplies become scarce because of the Middle East crisis, officials said Wednesday.

There is no law giving the government authority to control gasoline prices and supplies. And neither the Administration nor Congress is showing an immediate interest in seeking expanded powers.

The complex system of controls used in 1979, when cuts in Iranian oil supplies prompted worldwide buying panics and hoarding that sent crude oil prices soaring to well over $30 a barrel, has long since been dismantled.

Even the staunchest critics of the oil industry apparently have no appetite for rebuilding the cumbersome structure of regulation abolished by the Reagan Administration in 1981.

“We’ve learned a hard lesson about controls; you only use them in the most extreme situation,” said Rep. Philip R. Sharp (D-Ind.), chairman of the energy and power subcommittee of the House Energy Committee. “Over time, they generate huge problems. You can’t allocate oil very well in a dynamic economy,” he said.

Sharp noted that none of his subcommittee members expressed interest in federal controls on prices or supplies at a special hearing Tuesday prompted by the Middle East crisis. The reaction was the same at a hearing last winter, when the economy was hit by huge increases in the price of heating oil and propane.

Members of Congress who once would have been loud in their insistence on rationing and price controls are notably silent, Sharp said.

Meanwhile, apart from the Administration’s decision to consider tapping strategic reserves to increase supply, action on prices will be limited to President Bush’s call for the oil industry to show restraint.

“Americans everywhere must do their part,” the President said Wednesday in a televised address. “I’m asking the oil companies to do their fair share. They should show restraint and not abuse today’s uncertainties to raise prices.”

There is “no authority” for supply allocations or price regulations and “no plans” to request action by Congress, said Jeff Sherwood, a spokesman for the Energy Department. The Justice Department is looking into possible anti-competitive activity, and the Energy Department’s role is “to monitor prices,” Sherwood said.

Federal price controls and supply regulations were first imposed on the oil business in 1971, when President Richard M. Nixon announced a general price freeze. The last petroleum regulations were lifted a decade later.

During its 10-year life span, the regulatory system coped with two crises, the Arab oil embargo against the United States in 1973 and the supply cut after the Iranian revolution in 1979. Both periods were marked by panic buying, with anxious consumers lined up at service stations trying to top off their tanks.

Although controls have disappeared, the Energy Department still has an Economic Regulatory Administration, which is disposing of the remaining cases filed by the government against oil companies for violating the complex pricing regulations. The government has collected billions of dollars from oil and gas producers, distributing the money to state governments, wholesalers, retailers and other consumers who were victims of overcharging.

Martin Lobell, a Washington lawyer who worked as a referee in distributing overcharge funds, said the regulatory system was complex and burdensome.

“The problem with price controls is that they work for a short period of time and then get too complicated,” Lobell said. “You substitute political decision making for economic decision making.”

During the 1979 supply crisis, thousands of companies and individuals, ranging from big oil refining firms to individual service stations, filed appeals with the government, seeking additional supplies of petroleum. Federal officials tried to recreate the normal marketplace, setting prices and distributing supplies.

Although Congress seemingly has no appetite for trying price and supply controls again, its members are angry with the sudden explosion in prices. Wholesale and retail charges are soaring for products made from oil already purchased at the old price of $15 a barrel or less. Prices jumped as high as $28 a barrel in recent days.

“American consumers deserve to know that they are not being gouged by escalating gasoline prices,” Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) said Wednesday. “The crisis in the Persian Gulf could damage our economy as it is. For American business to inflict even greater damage would be unconscionable.”

“I was pleased to hear President Bush calling upon the oil companies to show restraint on consumer prices,” said Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), chairman of the antitrust subcommittee.

“However, consumers already have been ripped off by unjustified price hikes, and I hope the President will go further and persuade the oil companies to roll back prices,” Metzenbaum said. His subcommittee “will look into possible oil company price fixing and will consider whether legislation is necessary,” Metzenbaum said.

However, Sharp said a conspiracy isn’t needed to drive up oil prices. “No one in the oil business has to get together around a table and meet to raise prices. If you’re an oil company executive, you just look at what is happening, and say to yourself, ‘We’ll raise prices, too.’ ”

The President was hopeful that the price hike is temporary. “And I hope that this rapid spike on oil prices will not be permanent, and I think if we--if the world--begins to see assurances that there will not be a dramatic cutoff or cut down on oil, that then things will return much more to normal in the market,” Bush said.