gl4 HISTORY Of THE COMMITTE1 ON SCIENC1 AND TECHNOLOGY 



environmental effects, and improve their regulations. I RJDA was 

 directed to speed the development of technologies for use in deep 

 waters. The bill authorized the ( oast Guard to conduct research in 

 underwater diving techniques and equipment, as well as to conduct a 

 research program to improve oil spill prevention and cleanup. 



After several extensive markup sessions in the subcommittee and 

 full committee, an OCS R. & D. bill was reported on April 1, 1976. By 

 this time, the Speaker had appointed an Ad Hoc Committee on the 

 Outer Continental Shelf, headed by Representative John M. Murphy 

 'Democrat of New York). Also, the OCS bill, produced after careful 

 hearings by the Science Committee, was then referred to the House 

 Interior Committee. Despite prodding by the Science Committee, the 

 bill was bottled up and not considered further by the Interior 

 Committee. 



SYNTHETIC FUELS INCENTIVES 



In his State of the Union message in January 1975, President 

 Ford urged the Congress to provide new incentives for the commercial 

 production of one million barrels a day of synthetic fuel by 1985, which 

 would require the construction of 20 major synthetic fuel plants. The 

 details of a new program were not outlined at that time. When the 

 House of Representatives passed the ERDA authorization on June 20, 

 with only nine votes in opposition, there was strong unity within the 

 Science Committee and the House in support of additional funding for 

 pilot plants and demonstration plants for synthetic fuels. This unanim- 

 ity was shattered by a surprise development in the Senate 



Without any formal hearings, the Senate Interior Committee 

 reported out a bill in July 1975 to authorize $6 billion in loan guaran- 

 tees for commercialization of synthetic fuels. Acting with unusual 

 speed, the Senate passed the bill late on the evening of July 31 — the 

 last day of the Senate session prior to the August recess. The bill 

 earmarked $2.5 billion of the total for coal gasification in section 103- 

 The Senate bill also included a section 102 which authorized ERDA 

 to lease a tract of land from the Interior Department and then re-lease 

 it to private industry for demonstrating in situ oil recovery from shale, 

 after which the land could be turned over to industry for use in 

 commercializing the process. 



Congress was in recess in August, but there were a number of 

 long-distance telephone calls from various industrial representatives 

 to Science Committee members, urging them to accept the Senate 

 version as the quickest means of moving forward aggressively to 

 achieve energy independence. Teague, Mosher, McCormack, and a 

 majority of the members of the committee were convinced that the 



