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even outside of your own, and, if so, can you give us an idea of the 

 quality of the work that has been done, whether or not you think 

 that the funding that has gone into biomass research has been well 

 placed. What changes would you recommend to the program. What 

 should we do to improve the response in this area? 



Dr. Ryther. I have been asked to review a number of proposals 

 and progress reports in my own area of specialization and I think 

 that my opinion has carried some weight with the individuals, so I 

 certainly have no complaints in that respect. 



I do feel, as I mentioned before, that a peer review system that is 

 comparable to that used in some of the other agencies might be 

 improved upon. There is some of that done but I don't think 

 enough in the Department of Energy. 



Mr. Emery. Do you think it would be a valuable thing for a 

 group of scientists, or biologists, or energy experts to regularly 

 review these projects, hopefully, before they are undertaken so that 

 we might have a better way of knowing? 



Dr. Ryther. Very much so. 



Mr. Emery. I think that is an excellent suggestion and one that 

 we might consider. If we have been spending this tremendous 

 amount of money and the Department of Energy experts can't even 

 tell us what has been accomplished, it is appalling. 



I asked a series of questions earlier this morning, and was quite 

 alarmed by the fact that even some of the more fundamental 

 aspects of the subject brought blank stares. Many times the admin- 

 istrator responsible for answering the questions is not the man who 

 does the work. If the program is not being usefully used and if we 

 can't see any tangible results coming from it, I think we had better 

 start asking some questions to determine why. 



I have no further questions. I do want to compliment you on 

 your work and I hope we will see you here in the near future with 

 further information and more encouragement. 



Mr. Studds. It may be, Mr. Emery, that our witnesses come from 

 too high a level in the bureaucracy. I think we ought to move away 

 from the situation where we tend to get people in positions of far 

 too great responsibility to have to know anything of substance. It 

 may be that we ought to go down to the working level. 



Mr. Hughes? 



Mr. Hughes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I wonder if you could tell us, Doctor, if the seaweed that you 

 have been successfully experimenting with can be cultivated in 

 other areas, like, for instance, the Northeast? 



Dr. Ryther. The seaweed that we ended up working with is 

 semitropical. It occurs throughout the world in the tropical belt 

 and it gets up into the Northeast in the summertime as an annual 

 summer plant. But, generally, speaking, it is more of a warm water 

 species. 



Mr. Hughes. So it doesn't appear as if it would be too very 

 successful, for instance, in this particular environment of the 

 Northeast or off the California coast? 



Dr. Ryther. No, I don't think so. We did grow it up there in the 

 summertime and some other species like it and they do very well 

 during the summer period. I don't think anything grows particular- 

 ly well in the Northeast in the winter. There just isn't enough 



