978 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



The subcommittee had the advantage of summoning witnesses 

 from the Council on Environmental Quality, ERDA, EPA, and national 

 laboratories in an effort to achieve the improvements in coordination 

 for which the subcommittee had been striving. "Maybe we just ought 

 to call them up here and referee," suggested Winn. He also had a sug- 

 gestion to reduce paperwork in environmental impact statements: 

 ( .hi you have a short form and a long form? And throw out the long form? 



Wirth took the lead in insisting that ERDA should do a more 

 thorough job of seeking out those workers who had been exposed to 

 occupational hazards such as radiation, and had since left their jobs. 

 He also successfully sponsored an amendment on the House floor which 

 required that ERDA-specified safe containers be used for the ship- 

 ment of plutonium. 



Although the environment and safety features of the ERDA bill 

 were overshadowed by the extensive fight over the Clinch River 

 Breeder Reactor (see chapter XVIII), the Brown subcommittee 

 made several recommendations which were eventually incorporated 

 in legislation which the President signed on February 25, 1978. The 

 environment and safety features of the ERDA were increased by $10 

 million over the President's budget request to undertake the National 

 Coal Utilization Assessment, a study of the safety of liquefied natural 

 gas, a study of the environmental consequences of increased atmos- 

 pheric carbon dioxide concentrations as a result of fossil fuel combus- 

 tion, and decontamination and decommissioning problems. The sub- 

 committee also directed the development of a plan for disposition of 

 the Western New York Nuclear Service Center at West Valley, N.Y. 



brown's philosophy 



Brown's philosophy on environment and safety R. & D. was best 

 expressed during this period in a statement which he made on April 6, 

 1977, before the Public Works Appropriations Subcommittee: 



It is less costly to incorporate control technologies into technologies as they 

 are being developed, rather than retrofit them once they are found to violate environ- 

 mental, health and safety regulations. In the same vein, it is greatly advantageous for 

 decision makers to be aware of all costs and benefits associated with the various 

 technologies in making equitable choices among energy policy options. 



He warned that it was essential that there be improvements in waste 

 disposal, and other environment and safety measures, or else "we may 

 not have a nuclear program." At the same time, Brown came down 

 hard on the need to "assess the long-term environmental and socio- 

 economic implications of increased coal burning in different regions." 



