946 



HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



During 1978, the McCormack subcommittee published three sig- 

 nificant reports which had been compiled by the Science Policy Re- 

 search Division of the Library of Congress, entitled: 



'The Role of the National Energy Laboratories in ERDA and 

 Department of Energy Operations: Retrospect and Prospect," 

 January 1978; 

 — "Energy from the Ocean," April 1978; and 



"Energy from Geothermal Resources," June 1978. 



THE 1979 FIGHT OVER ENERGY JURISDICTIONS 



At the committee Democratic caucus on February 1, 1979, the 

 issue of energy subcommittee jurisdictions was up for grabs. Out 

 of some 10-15 different options for dividing the two energy subcom- 

 mittees, the organization meeting boiled these down to three — one 

 proposed by McCormack, Brown and Roe; a second proposed by 

 Ottinger and several others; and a third compromise suggested by 

 Fuqua. McCormack argued that relationships with the Department of 

 Energy would be simpler if the subcommittees were organized parallel 

 to the DOE organization and budgetary divisions, and also that the 

 heirs apparent to the two energy subcommittee chairmanships (McCor- 

 mack and Brown) agreed on the relative jurisdictions. Unanticipated 

 by McCormack, Brown chose instead to chair the Science, Research 

 and Technology Subcommittee. The plan suggested by McCormack 

 split solar programs by placing energy production technologies (like 

 solar electric) in one energy subcommittee and solar technologies — 

 like heating and cooling — in a second energy subcommittee. Fossil 

 and energy conservation went with applications, while geothermal, 

 nuclear, and electric energy systems went to a subcommittee presum- 

 ably to be chaired by McCormack. Ottinger commented: 



The problem I have with the division proposed by Mr. McCormack is that it 

 loads up the Energy II Committee with most of the energy systems in which all of 

 us are interested. * * * I do think it is terribly important that the work load of the 

 two energy committees be fairly divided, so that both of the subcommittees will be 

 of equal importance, interest and attraction. 



Gore pointed out that the committee would be foolish to follow DOE's 

 organization since DOE "may be the most disorganized part of the 

 executive branch. I would hesitate to see us compound the mistakes 

 that they have made over there." Blanchard added: "I hate to see 

 anyone vote for a plan based on what DOE has done. I know for a fact 

 that the organization over there was developed much for political 

 and internal reasons." 



The compromise proposal advanced by Fuqua split fission and 

 fusion, but had the advantage of allocating fairly even dollar authori- 



