908 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Goldwater pleaded with the subcommittee not to be intimidated by 

 President Ford's criticisms of congressional foot-dragging on energy. 

 He urged that Congress not respond by "striking out blindly back." 

 However, after the staff did a re-review of the "most productive 

 effort" figures with ERDA, it was Goldwater himself who made the 

 motion to recommend most of the increases. On the other hand, 

 Ottinger was critical and disappointed with ERDA's reaction, both 

 in the hearings and in staff discussions. He expressed "shock and 

 dismay" at the lack of enthusiasm which ERDA displayed in the 

 solar area, and favored "tripling or quadrupling" the amount of effort 

 put into solar R. & D. Frey interrupted to say: "When you take a 

 breath, I mean to say amen." 



MORE EMPHASIS ON CONSERVATION 



In the area of conservation, Ottinger successfully pushed for an 

 amendment to more than double the $40 million asked in the budget 

 to $90 million, rather than the $68 million suggested by the staff. 

 Goldwater and Winn opposed the increase as "irresponsible" on 

 budgetary grounds. After a brisk debate Ottinger's motion carried. 



The subcommittee in its markup added about $200 million to 

 ERDA's budget in 1975- Goldwater lost a motion to require that 

 ERDA come up and justify how they would spend this increase before 

 it was obligated. Then Ottinger submitted and persuaded the sub- 

 committee to approve a further amendment to give ERDA 4 percent 

 additional for increased administrative expenses in the conservation 

 area. This prompted the following exchange with Goldwater: 



Mr. Goldwater. Don't you think you are padding the lily a bit there? 



Mr. Ottinger. Padding the lily? This is a lily that deserves all the water and 

 fertilizer we can possibly give it, an area where it is clearly going to save the con- 

 sumer and the taxpayer money. 



The full committee went along with and approved all the sub- 

 committee recommendations. To summarize, the subcommittee sug- 

 gested the following major increases in operating expenses: 



—Solar energy increased from $70.3 million to $143-5 million. 



— Geothermal energy increased from $22.8 million to $533 million. 



— Conservation increased from $38.4 million to $127 million. 



The bill had been jointly referred to the Joint Committee on 

 Atomic Energy and the Science Committee, because of the nuclear 

 portions authorized for ERDA in the same bill. The close working 

 relationship between Teague and Price smoothed the way with few 

 difficulties. Both chairmen appeared before the Rules Committee to 

 ask for a joint rule, dividing the time for debate of these and the fossil 



