882 HISTORY OF THF COMNflTTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



On April 10, Ottinger, Wirth, Harkin, Brown, Glickman, Downey, 

 and Fish met with the President. The President emphasized to them 

 that the compromise represented only a design study, with no com- 

 mitment to a breeder program in 1978; that the Carter administration 

 would step up funding of alternative energy programs such as solar, 

 geothermal, and conservation; and that solar power would figure 

 strongly in the new national energy plan. Secretary Schlesinger sat 

 in with the group in their meeting with the President, and they came 

 away pleased with the President's response. 



A FATEFUL MEETING WITH UTILITY REPRESENTATIVES 



Tiger Teague always operated on faith. He had an ingrained feeling 

 that if you always levelled with all people, they would level with you. 

 He preferred gin rummy to poker, which may or may not have been 

 symbolic. He knew there was bitter opposition in the nuclear industry 

 to President Carter's position on the CRBR, and the giant utilities 

 had tremendous power in congressional districts throughout the 

 country. He appreciated the sources of political and economic power, 

 and knew that if he could soften the opposition of the nuclear industry 

 there might be a chance to succeed. 



The major utilities represented in the nuclear empire were easy to 

 contact — they all had their Washington headquarters. There wasn't 

 time to call in the presidents and chairmen of the boards, and the 

 Washington representatives knew their way around. Furthermore, 

 they were the ones who were sending out the signals to committee 

 members on how their companies felt about the efforts to compromise 

 on the CRBR — a very hot issue which had already been aired fully in 

 the press. The pressure was intense. These Washington representatives 

 had entree to many congressional offices. The signals could be changed 

 quickly if necessary. By early April, every nuclear industry signal was 

 red on the Flowers amendment. 



Teague decided it was time for a bold move. He phoned about 20 

 of the Washington representatives and asked them to meet in his office 

 on Monday evening, April 10. Surprisingly, nobody had a previous 

 engagement. The turnout was 100 percent. 



In keeping with his policy of being completely open and frank 

 with the industry representatives — a policy he had successfully followed 

 with the aerospace industry ever since the early days of NASA— 

 Teague distributed copies of the proposed Flowers amendment which 

 was to be brought up in the full committee session the following day. 

 This immediately set off an argument concerning phraseology in the 



