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921 



committee came up with, the House and the people who elected the 

 Housc wanted Congress to move faster to try and insure earlier use of 

 solar and geothermal energy, and to a lesser extent perhaps apply 

 conservation (mainly for the other guy). 



Productive work on two other legislative landmarks occurred 

 in 1976 and came to fruition in 1977 — the Energy Extension Service 

 and the Automotive Transport R. & D. Act. Both pieces of legislation 

 represented initiative by the subcommittee, with not too much en- 

 couragement from the administration, and are outstanding examples 

 of the influence on public policy by the committee. 



Representative Ray Thornton (Democrat of Arkansas), father of the Energy Extension 

 Service. 



THORNTON AND THE ENERGY EXTENSION SERVICE 



The Energy Extension Service was Thornton's brainchild. It 

 grew from his experience, the challenge of the energy crisis, and the 

 unfolding of the problem of relating conservation to people at the 

 grassroots. As a member of the Committee on Agriculture, represen- 

 ting a vast rural area in his home State of Arkansas, Thornton quickly 

 grasped the difficulties which average people had in understanding the 

 highfalutin decisions being voiced in the marble halls of the Federal 

 bureaucracy. 



Early in 1975, Thornton leaned toward the concept of an energy 

 conservation corps, essentially to help small businessmen and others 



