NO F! 1 I I IK! \N Ol.l) FOSSII I I I I g4~ 



approach was that loan guarantees were incorporated into the ERDA 

 authorization bill, instead of being in a separate bill, as in 1976. Also, 

 the Flowers amendment initially did not contain the safeguards which 

 had been written into the prior legislation on such issues as community 

 impact, State and local partnership, anticompetitive features, and 

 congressional review. Not until Goldwater called attention to the 

 unfairness of jamming the amendment through in 10 minutes was there 

 an opportunity afforded for some of the safeguard amendments to be 

 considered. Wirth's amendment incorporating the 1976 safeguards was 

 carried. 



Wvdler signaled that he had studied the loan guarantee concept, 

 which he once characterized in 1975 as "some sort of ripoff of the 

 American taxpayers" and had some new thoughts in 1977: 



I started out frankly in the last administration, one of my party, when this 

 program was first proposed, very suspicious of it and cynical about it. Slowly, over 

 the year or more that we have considered it, I have become more convinced that 

 actually this program is absolutely essential to the future energy resources of the 

 \ T ation. 



Fuqua concurred, adding: "I think it is vital that this country get 

 moving in the area of synthetic fuel." 



Obviously, the sentiment in the committee and the Congress 

 was changing. Ottinger alone signed a minority report, reiterating the 

 position he and his colleagues had taken in 1975 and 1976. He also 

 produced additional correspondence from the General Accounting 

 Office, including a May 9, 1977, letter to Teague which stated in part: 



We continue to believe that — in lieu of providing Federal loan guarantees for 

 commercial-size plants — efforts should be directed to researching and developing 

 improved emerging energy technologies until their technical, economic, environ- 

 mental, socioeconomic and regulatory problems are resolved. We continue to believe 

 also that information on these problems can and should first be obtained from smaller 

 than commercial-size plants. 



NO LOAN GUARANTEES FOR COMMERCIALIZATION 



But by the time the bill reached the floor for House debate, it 

 became evident that the Department of Energy was not all that 

 excited about loan guarantees. In letters to Teague and Dingell, 

 Secretary Schlesinger underlined his conviction that they should be 

 used only for new technology, and not for large commercialization of 

 old technology as was possible under the 1975 and 1976 proposals. 

 Ottinger told the House on September 21, 1977: 



I refrain from another effort to delete these provisions this year only because of 

 my confidence in the honor of the gentleman from Texas, our good chairman, Mr. 

 Teague. 



