rASK FORC1 AND SUBCOMMITTE] ON ENERGY, 1971 74 675 



enthusiasm supported action in both of these areas, but McCormack 

 indicated at the June 1973 hearings: "The consensus of the technolog- 

 ical community seems to be that the commercial operation of solar 

 power to electrical generators is still many years in the future." In 

 assessing in 1978 what he had been able to accomplish in 1973, McCor- 

 mack reflected: 



We also recognized that solar heating and cooling was the iirst area where we 

 could easily conceive a rational, responsible research, development and demonstration 

 program. We could conceive it ourselves without any significant outside help, we held 

 hearings and had it fundamentally confirmed that we were on the right track, and 

 went ahead and moved this legislation out. 



Drs. Ratchford and Andelin, who worked on drafting the legis 

 lation, tied it very closely to activities of NASA, NSF and the National 

 Bureau of Standards — all of which were within the committee's juris- 

 diction. The Department of Housing and Urban Development was also 

 drawn in to evaluate the performance of the solar units. The central 

 concept was to add the magic word "demonstration" beyond research 

 and development, to show that solar heating and cooling would indeed 

 work if demonstrated with several thousand buildings over a period 

 of several years. One of McCormack's greatest contributions was to 

 expand the use of research and development to be married with 

 "demonstration." 



Although the OMB designated NSF as the lead agency for solar 

 energy research, thus strengthening the committee's jurisdictional 

 claim to the bill, McCormack reports: 



We never did have a complete agreement with the Administration. The Ad- 

 ministration opposed the legislation. 



Nevertheless, the Republicans on the committee strongly supported 

 the bill. Goldwater, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, was 

 one of its most active supporters, as was Mosher. Teague, Mosher, 

 Goldwater, and McCormack joined as the principal sponsors of the 

 solar heating and cooling bill when hearings were resumed in Novem- 

 ber to finalize the details. By now the Middle Eastern oil embargo had 

 struck the United States, and everybody was starting to get on the 

 energy bandwagon. Fully 187 Members of the House of Representa- 

 tives rushed to cosponsor the solar heating and cooling bill. 



With that kind of motherhood support, McCormack did not have 

 to be concerned with whether he was invading the jurisdiction of any 

 other committee. The legislative history was carefully printed up to 

 show that for a dozen years Members had been introducing bills on 

 solar energy. Actually, one of the first solar energy bills had been 

 introduced in 1962 by Congressman Anfuso while an early member of 

 the committee. The legislative history went into the background of 

 how the task force had worked on the issue, followed up by the Decem- 

 ber 1972 reports of both the committee and agencies. 



