g56 HISTORY OF THE COMMH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Among the basic decisions made by the subcommittee in 1979 

 was to add authorization for building a second solvent refined coal 

 (SRC) liquefaction plant which had originally been included the prior 

 year but not finally enacted. DOE recommended that when it came 

 time to build, two processes would be competitive (solid product or 

 liquid product), and DOE would choose one of the two for construc- 

 tion purposes. The subcommittee decided not to force the processes to 

 be competitive, on the oilier hand projected future hearings on coal 

 liquefaction to more thoroughly examine the two processes and DOE's 

 policies with relation to them. The subcommittee also directed DOE 

 to submit its project plans before construction got underway. 



The subcommittee generally supported the DOE effort in 1979 to 

 modify the coal mining R. & D., and reorient the program toward 

 meeting productivity and environmental standards. This approach 

 reflected the skepticism with which the committee had viewed the 

 lack of progress in the old Bureau of Mines R. & D. efforts, which the 

 committee had criticized in the past and which only recently had been 

 transferred to DOE. 



Following a practice started in 1975, the subcommittee decided to 

 line-item projects which would enable tighter congressional oversight 

 over construction operations especially since there had arisen a habit 

 of utilizing operating funds for this purpose. With the spotting of 

 many management problems in construction, the subcommittee con- 

 cluded that DOE by law would henceforth be required to submit an 

 approved project plan — including engineering design and a firm man- 

 agement plan — before starting site acquisition and construction. 



The subcommittee also took the initiative to add funds in 1979 

 in the following R. & D. areas: Anthracite mining, fuel cells, com- 

 bustion systems, heat engines and heat recovery, MHD and enhanced 

 gas recovery. In the latter area, an Ertel-Watkins amendment added 

 $5 million more in the full committee markup, and Ottinger also 

 added on $5 million in full committee for fuel cells R. & D. The sub- 

 committee also made cuts in a number of less productive proposals, 

 and the full committee resisted several additional cuts proposed by 

 Walker in the interests of fiscal responsibility. 



During the House consideration of theDepartmentof Energyauthor- 

 lzation bill on October 11, 1979, Fuqua successfully sponsored amend- 

 ments which added $7.5 million each for three new demonstration 

 projects to convert coal to synthetic liquids and gases. These included 

 coal liquefaction, low BTU gasification, and coal-to-methanol. 



