CHAPTER XVII 



No Fuel Like an Old Fossil Fuel 



Coal, oil, and natural gas were the focus of the Fossil Fuels Sub- 

 committee which was organized in 1975, and then expanded in 1977 

 to include nuclear R. & D. Hechler headed the subcommittee in the 

 94th Congress, and Flowers in the 95th. All other energy jurisdiction 

 fell to McCormack in both Congresses. 



The Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), 

 a new agency fashioned out of the former Atomic Energy Commission 

 and bits and pieces of EPA, NSF, and the Department of the Interior, 

 first saw the light of day on January 19, 1975 — about three weeks before 

 being summoned to present its first budget to the Science Committee 

 on February 6. The confusion was unbelievable. Budget figures had 

 been prepared mainly by alumni of the Atomic Energy Commission, 

 which had been used to dealing with the tolerant and overly sympa- 

 thetic Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. The AEC budget specialists 

 had customarily used very broad general categories constituting hun- 

 dreds of millions of dollars, with very loosely-reined freedom to 

 transfer funds among big items. In 1975, the ERDA budget had a 

 number of nuclear R. & D. items intermingled with nonnuclear, and 

 since the committee did not inherit the Joint Committee jurisdiction 

 until 1977, this complicated the problem further. 



ASSISTANCE TO COMMITTEE BY OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT 



The Office of Technology Assessment performed yeoman service 

 to the committee by tackling the new ERDA budget in advance of 

 the hearings. With the aid of some high-powered consultants from the 

 universities, OTA translated some of the key energy issues and ques- 

 tions presented by the budget outline. The OTA groundwork was 

 extremely helpful. They presented their horseback judgments under 

 great time pressure, both in briefing papers and informal question-and- 

 answer sessions. Seated around a hollow square series of tables, work- 

 ing in their shirtsleeves, the OTA experts took time off from their 

 academic pursuits long enough to give committee members and staff a 

 personalized interpretation of the ERDA budget in brilliantly non- 

 bureaucratic language. One Saturday and Sunday in early February, 



soi 



