676 HISTORY Ol mi COMMITTEE ON SCIENC1 AND TECHNOLOGY 



When the solar heating and cooling bill was taken up in full 

 committee on December 14, 1973, Wydler stated: 



As a member of the subcommittee, I truthfully want to compliment the Chairman 

 on the way he has pursued this whole subject. * * * I know a lot of people in the coun- 

 try still think that solar heating and cooling is kind of a Duck Rogers type of a propo- 

 sition, but the truth of the matter is it is a proven method of doing the job and it does 

 work. The questions that really have to be answered are the economics of the situa- 

 tion, and I think this bill will give us the economic facts to demonstrate one way or 

 another whether it is economically feasible to actually try to heat homes and busi- 

 nesses and cool them with the power of the sun. That is what we are really going to 

 try and find out in this program. 



The subcommittee had prepared the ground carefully. Three held trips 

 had been made to evaluate solar heating and cooling technology in 

 Albuquerque and Los Alamos, N. Mex., and in Washington, D. C. The 

 Manned Space Flight Subcommittee also reported on a successful solar 

 heating and cooling building at Marshall Space Flight Center in 

 Huntsville, Ala. Colonel Gould made an extensive report on similar 

 developments at Langley Research Center and solar research at Lewis 

 Research Center. 



THE TWO-TRACK EFFORT 



The McCormack subcommittee actually proceeded on a two-track 

 system during the fall months of 1973. While the solar heating and 

 cooling legislation was being developed, hearings were started in 

 November on the "Geothermal Energy Research, Development, and 

 Demonstration Act." Once again, Teague, Goldwater, Mosher, and 

 McCormack were the principal cosponsors. The legislation aimed to 

 coordinate and speed up applied research in various types of geothermal 

 technology in order to hasten its use to generate electricity. The sub- 

 committee recognized that some electric power was already being 

 commercially generated from hot and dry steam, and the legislation 

 was designed to expand exploration and techniques for utilizing hot 

 dry rock and other geothermal technology. 



Both the solar and geothermal bills became entangled in the big 

 issue of what kind of an energy policy and organization should be put 

 in place by the President and the Congress. Since his message to Con- 

 gress in June 1971, urging the establishment of a cabinet Department 

 of Natural Resources, President Nixon had made several proposals 

 along the lines of consolidating energy agencies. The cabinet proposal 

 was not pushed very hard, and a series of energy coordinators moved 

 in and out of the White House. The clarion call in December 1972 for 

 a single national energy policy and the coordinated organization to 

 accompany it — issued by the McCormack task force on energy — were 

 not heeded. In June 1973, President Nixon appointed Gov. John 

 A. Love of Colorado as an energy czar, asked Congress for a cabinet 



