NO II II. I.IK1 AN OLD FO.sMI 11 11 



853 



preliminary work done by the Science Committee. Myers, the ranking 

 minority member on the Flowers subcommittee, commented in a floor 

 speech on July 14, 1978: 



The committee in the coal area realized that the time had come to begin looking 

 seriously at the various programs that have been funded over the years in the old 

 Office of Coal Research in the Department of the Interior, in ERDA, and in the Depart- 

 ment of Energy. We found that we were able to pick some winners and losers * * * 

 and I am happy that the committee had the courage to admit that certain projects 

 were just not working. 



One of the most tumultuous, complex series of negotiations in 

 which the committee engaged involved the Department of Energy 

 authorization bill in 1978. While ERDA had existed, it was a relatively 

 simple matter to separate out those R. & D. portions which related 

 directly to the jurisdiction of the Science Committee. However, when 

 the Department of Energy sent up its mission-oriented budget, it 

 became extremely difficult to disentangle the various portions which 

 pertained to the House committees claiming jurisdiction. On January 

 27, 1978, Teague wrote to Speaker O'Neill noting that there were 

 several areas of committee jurisdictional overlap in the DOE authoriza- 

 tion bill. Teague introduced a new bill which clearly contained only 

 those R. & D. matters within the Science Committee's jurisdiction. 

 When the Science Committee had completed its work, this legislation 

 was sequentially referred to the Commerce and Interior Committees. 

 Along came the DOE omnibus bill, which was jointly referred to the 

 Science, Commerce, Banking, Interior, Armed Services, and Interna- 

 tional Relations Committees, giving rise to new jurisdictional prob- 

 lems. Some very sticky confrontations developed, with demands and 

 counter-demands flying between committees and their staffs, and joint 

 agreements were extremely difficult. Even though there was a final 

 compromise worked out on the R. & D. portions of the DOE authoriza- 

 tion, and the compromise was published in the Record, the bill itself 

 did not receive final approval in the Senate by the close of the 1978 

 session. 



In 1979, the fossil fuels R. & D. programs were taken over by 

 a new subcommittee headed by Representative Richard L. Ottinger 

 (Democrat of New York). The leading environmentalist in Congress, 

 outspoken advocate of solar energy and conservation, opponent of over- 

 reliance on nuclear fission and organizer of the congressional Environ- 

 mental Study Conference, Ottinger's views frequently clashed with 

 those of a majority of the committee. Ottinger's leadership on issues 

 like opposition to loan guarantees and the Clinch River Breeder 

 Reactor and strong support of all forms of renewable resources revealed 

 an ability to mobilize citizen groups to rally to his cause. Unlike 



