1028 HISTORY OF THE COMMIT!! ! I IN SCIENCE AXD TECHNOLOGY 



the issues with which the Flowers subcommittee dealt were the role 

 of the national laboratories in energy R. & D., clean air standards, 

 support for magnetohydrodynamics, and management of the MHD 

 program, and construction oversight on coal liquefaction (at Cresap, 

 W. Va., and Catlettsburg, Ky.) — at both of which remedial manage- 

 ment action was recommended and carried out. The Flowers subcom- 

 mittee also recommended the building of a second solvent refined coal 

 (SRC) liquefaction plant, a recommendation which was also made in 

 1979 when Ottinger took over the subcommittee. The Ottinger sub- 

 committee generally supported the DOE effort in 1979 to reorganize 

 the coal mining R. & D. program, and reorient it toward meeting pro- 

 ductivity and environmental standards. In 1979, the subcommittee 

 added funds for anthracite mining, fuel cells, combustion systems, heat 

 engines and heat recovery. 



Chapter XVIII 



A no-win controversy developed between the committee and 

 President Carter over building the $2.6 billion Clinch River Breeder 

 Reactor (CRBR). A majority of the committee strongly favored the 

 CRBR, which had been supported by both Presidents Nixon and Ford 

 but opposed by President Carter. President Carter's early position was 

 that the production of plutonium would lead to nuclear weapons 

 proliferation, a fact disputed by McCormack, who contended that it 

 was cheaper and easier to make weapons outside of the fuel cycle. A 

 small group of antinuclear Democrats, led by Ottinger, contended that 

 the CRBR was outdated. Wydler and Mrs. Lloyd also helped lead the 

 fight to build the CRBR. 



Teague led an eight-member delegation to Europe in May and 

 June 1977, where they inspected France's operating breeder reactor, 

 and visited, among other places, the International Atomic Energy 

 Agency in Vienna, Austria. 



In 1977, Brown attempted to amend the ERDA authorization bill 

 to reduce the $150 million of funding for the CRBR to the level recom- 

 mended by President Carter: $33 million. Brown's amendment went 

 down by 246 to 162 in the House. Committee Democrats voted 15 to 11 

 against the amendment and for full funding for the CRBR. Fish and 

 Pursell were the only committee Republicans (out of 13) who sup- 

 ported the Brown amendment. 



Although the President vetoed the ERDA authorization bill in 

 1977, it did not kill the CRBR, because Congress put funds into a 

 supplemental appropriations bill and then arranged for the funding 

 bill to become effective without a specific authorization. Included in 

 the same supplemental bill were many other items the President 



