HOUSE SPEAKER BACKS OIL IMPORT FORECAST PLAN

  House Speaker Jim Wright endorsed a
  proposal to require the president to take action to reduce oil
  imports if they threaten to top 50 pct of U.S. consumption.
      Wright told reporters the plan by Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, a
  fellow Texas Democrat, was positive and useful. Oil imports
  peaked in 1977 at 47 pct, were short of 36 pct last year and
  this year are up over 40 pct, Bentsen said. 
      The Bentsen proposal, supported by 24 other Senators, would
  would require the president to issue annual three-year oil
  import forecasts. In any year they threatened to top 50 pct, he
  would be ordered to propose quotas or other solution.
  

