574 HISTORY OF TH I COMMITTE1 ON SCIENC1 \ND TECHNOLOGY 



McCormack subcommittee holds joint hearings with Reuss subcommittee. From left, 

 Representatives Ray Thornton (Democrat of Arkansas), Richard T. Hanna (Democrat of 

 California), McCormack, Henry S. Reuss (Democrat of Wisconsin) and staff. 



There was a tremendous upsurge of national interest focused on 

 alternative forms of energy, as the gasoline shortages began to make 

 more and more people aware of energy issues. Solar energy, geo- 

 thermal, fusion, and conservation were the four battle cries of the 

 environmentalists. McCormack rarely mentioned environmentalists 

 without calling them either "environmental extremists" or "extreme 

 environmentalists." But he had welcomed their support in expanding 

 the scope of the task force. Fusion and the breeder reactor he could 

 talk about as a member of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, 

 but his own Subcommittee on Energy could not go very far in these 

 areas. Reflecting on the situation as he looked back on it in 1978, 

 McCormack said: 



After all, the Interior Committee did have the Office of Coal Research in its 

 jurisdiction and the Joint Committee had all nuclear energy, so we took the areas that 

 nobody else had to start with. There was no activity in them at all. So that was solar 

 and geothcrmal and conservation and that's where we spent our time and efforts 

 primarily. 



SOLAR HEATING AND COOLING BILL 



In the summer of 1973, the McCormack subcommittee held hear- 

 ings on two aspects of solar energy: The generation of electricity, and 

 the use of solar energy for heating and cooling purposes. Considerable 



