Inside Report (7)

Can there be too much free enterprise?

Maybe so, say a growing number of US oilmen. All for complete decontrol of oil and gas, they now oppose allowing foreign petroleum products to flow unrestricted to US consumers. Bottom line: The Mideast can produce and deliver crude to the US at low enough prices to discourage US production. So along with other oil-industry insiders, Republican Gov. William P. Clements of Texas is pushing hard for an import fee on foreign oil. Billed as action needed to move the US toward ''energy independence,'' more immediately the fee would encourage more US oil and gas production.

Declining production has hit energy states like Texas hard, threatening to pinch some of the Sunbelt's burst of prosperity.