March 6, 1974
Page 5524
Mr. GOLDWATER. Mr. President, it was very difficult for all of us in Congress to believe last fall that we actually faced and were in the middle of a fuel crisis in this country. I know from trips home that the people at home find it difficult to believe and that they no longer do.
What the American people are looking to us for is some relief. I suggest that the American people want fuel, the American people want gasoline, the American people want everything needed that comes from petroleum to provide heat, propulsion, and the other things we get from petroleum products. They do not want more regulation.
I asked the distinguished leader of this bill before we departed for the Christmas vacation to name for me where 1 additional gallon of gasoline was coming from the 32 bills we discussed, none of which had been passed. I did not get any answer except the Alaskan pipeline, and I suggested that had nothing to do with the present legislation.
Nor did the Elk Hills opening in northern California have anything to do with it. And I still claim the emergency measures we have taken have not given to the American people one thimbleful of gasoline for their cars. To sit here and debate day after day after day how we are going to regulate the oil companies, how we are going to cut down on their profits, how we are going to regulate and control, even down to the gasoline station operations, to me is senseless. I do not think the American people approve of it.
For instance, we need new domestic sources. For years – I would say 40 years – we have made those who engaged in fuel exploration almost criminals. We have discouraged such a person. We have talked against him. We have passed prohibitive regulations in the field of natural gas, and in my State we depend on natural gas to produce 52 percent of the copper produced in this country.
We want more fuel. That is what Americans want. When they look at what foreigners have to pay for gasoline, they realize how lucky we have been in this country year after year. They do not like to wait for hours in line for gasoline. I think Americans would be glad to pay a little more if they thought it was going to relieve fuel supplies. We need new domestic sources.
Do my colleagues know what we are going to do if this piece of legislation becomes law? We are going to discourage every small driller that can produce 10 or 12 barrels a day, who might produce 20 barrels, from producing anything. And at the present time that is the only place we are going to get additional petroleum.
We need refineries. I am told by people whose expertise I respect that we need 80 refineries now – not 5 or 10 years from now, but now. They tell me we have enough crude oil to make gasoline, but, again, we have discouraged this kind of investment in the past, and now that we need them, I do not know who is building the new refineries. We are talking about building one in Arizona, and I hope we will be able to go ahead with it, instead of talking about regulating and excess profits and that sort of thing, we could have interested people to go ahead and invest and build refineries.
Another thing we need in this country and do not have – in fact, I think we have one, and that is off Long Beach, Calif., and it is not a modern facility – is the ability to offload the large modem tanker. Neither do we make the large modern tanker. They are being made in other places in the world. I was in Iran recently and saw at one loading dock 13 tankers of over 200,000 tons. Not one of those tankers could be unloaded in the United States, because we have not built the facilities. Again, instead of spending our time talking about regulation, and so forth, why have we not done something to make it a little encouraging for companies or people to build those badly needed offload facilities? We are not looking even at 200,000 ton tankers. In Iran they are providing for unloading 500,000 ton tankers, and we have no place in the United States now that can begin to take care of an offload like that.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
Mr. GOLDWATER. Mr. President, I will vote to sustain the President's veto because the bill is pure, unadulterated, 100 percent hogwash.
Mr. FANNIN. Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time.
Mr. JACKSON. Mr. President, I yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Maine (Mr. MUSKIE).
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine is recognized for 10 minutes.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, with respect to the comments just made by the distinguished Senator from Arizona (Mr. GOLDWATER), let me read from the President's veto message his view about the importance of the legislation which we are considering, and I read the following paragraph:
We need the authority to require energy conservation measures. We need the direct authority to ration gasoline if, and only if, rationing becomes necessary, which it has not. We need the authority to require conversion of power plants, where possible, to permit the use of our abundant coal reserves.
These three needs which the President describes even now in a message vetoing the bill are essential national policy, he tells us.
Mr. President, he told us the same things last December, and it was in response to his urging and that of his administration that we in the Senate, and the two Houses in conference worked long days and long hours to iron out our differences and produce this kind of authority.
At that time there were just two hangups : One, the nature of the conservation authority we should give to the Energy Administrator, Mr. Simon; and two, the question of what we should do with respect to whatever windfall profits might be generated from the current situation by the oil companies.
The House was adamant on the so-called windfall profits provisions last December. There was no way to persuade the House to recede. And finally I offered an amendment which suspended the House provisions until January 1975, thus giving us a year to work out those problems.
In addition, I did my best to give the President flexibility with respect to the conservation authority that would be given to Mr. Simon.
When that work was all done, my impression was that, although there were some differences remaining, everybody concerned could live with it – the Senate conferees, the House conferees, and the administration advisers.
But, no; when the bill hit the floor, a filibuster was launched against those suspended windfall profits provisions, and the bill was killed in the closing hours of that session.
So when we came back in this session, we went through the same exercise again; succeeded in persuading the House to substitute, for its windfall profits provisions, the rollback provisions incorporated in the pending bill. And again those provisions were tailored to comments which had been made by Mr. Simon in behalf of the administration.
He had said over and over again that he felt the price of crude oil should ultimately settle at about $7 per barrel. Using that figure, and indeed 9 cents more – $7.09 a barrel – the Senate and House conferees wrote in this rollback provision.
Indeed, this rollback provision is attacked from the other side as permitting too much of an increase in the price of petroleum products. Because it is attacked from both sides, I suggest perhaps the provision we have pending before us is a reasonable one.
How high does the administration now think the price of domestic crude should go? We are not told, but on top of page 2 of the mimeographed copy of the veto message there is language which may give us a clue, and I read:
The rollback would not only cut domestic oil production, but would also retard imports since in the present environment oil companies are reluctant to import oil and gasoline that would have to be sold at prices far above the domestic prices.
Is the President telling us in this language that he believes the price for domestic crude should rise to the levels set by the Arab oil-producing countries? That is what he seems to be saying.
What he seems to be saying, therefore, is that if one consents to his veto message and drops the rollback provisions, we can expect that the price for American domestic crude will rise to meet the levels set in the international market by the Arab oil-producing states.
I cannot think of any other way of interpreting that language in the President's veto message.
It was because of the threat – that an arbitrary price would become the market price for domestic crude – that the House and Senate conferees felt impelled to write these rollback provisions into the bill.
I would like to say, Mr. President, that I will vote to override the President's veto because I feel that to abandon this effort to control prices will place those prices in the hands of an administration which seems to be pointing in the direction of the cartel prices set overseas.
Mr. President, I refer to the language at the top of page 2 of the President's veto message to indicate the reason for my position.
It was at the urging of the President that we give him the authority to require energy conservation measures and to ration gasoline, if necessary, that I was willing to work with my colleagues in this body and in the House in order to loosen up some of the environmental safeguards in our environmental law.
I felt that if Americans were going to be asked to conserve heating oil and gasoline by turning down their thermostats and by driving slower and by driving less and all of the other means by which we have been asked to conserve heating oil and gasoline that it was not unreasonable for those of us interested in environmental values to make some small sacrifice, provided that it did not mean the abandonment of our environmental goals.
If these authorities are so unnecessary at the present time that the President is impelled to veto this bill, then I would say to the President that, for one, I will take another look at any further request on his part to modify the environmental laws before I make a decision.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
Mr. JACKSON. Mr. President, I yield 1 further minute to the Senator from Maine.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. WILIAM L. SCOTT). The Senator from Maine is recognized for an additional minute.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I have one other concern. I have the concern that the President may have an unstated reason for vetoing the bill, and that would be that he would want a more complete relaxation of the environmental laws than the bill provides. I refer to a story in the Washington Post under the date of March 5. The article is entitled "Ecology Act Waiver Splits White House." The article is written by George C. Wilson. The first paragraph of the article reads as follows:
A split has developed within the Nixon administration over a proposal to let the federal government approve a wide range of energy projects without explaining how they would affect the environment.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the article from which I have read and a similar article from the Wall Street Journal, also under date of March 5, 1974, be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
ECOLOGY ACT WAIVER SPLITS WHITE HOUSE
(By George C. Wilson)
A split has developed within the Nixon administration over a proposal to let the federal government approve a wide range of energy projects without explaining how they would affect the environment.
The idea was advanced at a White House meeting Wednesday night by Richard M. Fairbanks, an associate director of President Nixon's Domestic Council, in the form of suggested changes in the National Environmental Policy Act.
That act, called NEPA, is the one environmental groups have used to challenge a number of projects in the past – including the Alaska pipeline.
Administrator Russell E. Train of the Environmental Protection Agency, according to informed sources, told Fairbanks and others at the White House meeting that waiving the NEPA provisions was a bad idea.
Train, both as EPA administrator and former chairman of Mr. Nixon's Council on Environmental Quality, has argued that environmental opposition has been unfairly blamed for holding up power projects more often caused by engineering difficulties and other management problems.
At the Wednesday meeting, Train asked whether the President's Council on Environmental Quality had been consulted on the proposal to waive the National Environmental Policy Act on certain energy projects and thus deny outside groups the right to sue on grounds environmental impact statements were not filed or were inadequate.
The White House officials replied that the council had not been consulted, according to informed sources, and the meeting adjourned with the understanding that the council's views would be sought before the proposal went further.
Fairbanks left the impression with at least one official at the meeting that President Nixon himself wanted to minimize the chance of court challenges to energy-producing projects by narrowing the application of the environmental act.
But Fairbanks himself said last night that "we're a long way" from making a formal recommendation and are instead "fleshing out" various agency positions on the impact of the National Environmental Policy Act on energy projects.
He added that "we would be remiss" not to do so. He said there is not yet an official White House position on the proposal to waive the act's provisions.
Besides Fairbanks, the White House was represented in the discussion by William E. Simon, the President's energy chief; Frank G. Zarb, an associate director in the Office of Management and Budget, and Glenn Schleede of the Domestic Council staff.
Simon reportedly took a relatively neutral stance on the environmental act proposal at the meeting while OMB and Domestic Council representatives indicated they supported it.
Right now, strip mining on government land in the West and atomic power plants, as well as refineries and other facilities which require federal permits – such as dumping rights from the Army Corps of Engineers – are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 since there is federal involvement. Such projects require filing "look-before-you-leap" environmental impact statements.
The Council on Environmental Quality, in a memo to the White House, opposed waiving the impact statement requirement. Russell W. Peterson, chairman of the council, has opposed wide-open approval of energy projects, arguing, "I'm responsible to the next generation." He pushed through the Delaware legislature the bill banning refineries on that state's coast.
Congress last year, in a controversial vote, barred further National Environmental Policy Act challenges to the Alaska pipeline, stating in the bill that the project had met that law's requirement. Backers of that waiver said at the time that this would be a onetime exception – not a precedent for waivers of the act on other projects.
Richard Ayres, a National Resources Defense Council lawyer who argues environmental cases, said last year that the proposed waiver represents "another over-reaction to the energy crisis."
He said since state conventional power plants and other energy facilities off federal property are not covered by the 1969 act, its impact on energy nationwide is relatively small.
"The administration is striking out at anything it sees as standing in the way of energy," Ayres said.
NIXON OFFICIALS APPEAR DIVIDED ON ENERGY PLAN
(By Burt Schorr)
WASHINGTON. – The Nixon administration appears sharply split over a legislative package that the President will likely offer Congress in place of the emergency energy bill he plans to veto this week.
Most details of the package, which will include standby authority for gasoline rationing, are in line with previous statements of Nixon energy officials. The controversy, however, is centered on a much broader revision of the Clean Air Act than originally sought by Mr. Nixon.
One administration official clearly unhappy with the apparent thrust of the coming Clean Air Act proposals is Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Russell Train. Asked to comment on the Clean Air Act changes, which were broached at a White House briefing for about a dozen newsmen, Mr. Train said that he couldn't support many of them. "I've made that pretty damned clear," he said in an interview after the briefing, which he didn't attend.
The EPA chief said his agency has said all along that some Clean Air Act revisions are needed, but he fears the President's package is "going to become a sort of Christmas tree" for suggested amendments that could be "disastrous" for the environmental law.
The rationing proposal would appear to conflict with a Nixon promise to the Young Republicans last week "that we aren't going to have and we shouldn't have" compulsory gasoline rationing. A White House spokesman said the speech "could be interpreted two ways." What the President intended, though, was the idea that the mandatory oil-price rollback required by the emergency energy bill he won't sign would discourage domestic crude production, worsen the oil shortage and make rationing inevitable, the spokesman explained.
The proposed Clean Air Act amendments currently under consideration, as listed by White House staff member Richard Fairbanks, include two previous recommendations: retention of the interim automobile emission-control ceilings, currently due in 1975 models, for an additional two years through 1977; and authorization for oil-fired power plants to convert to coal for relatively long periods to provide an incentive for the necessary capital investment.
The additional recommendations probably will include a request to ease the requirement that heavily polluted metropolitan areas begin transportation controls aimed at limiting use of the automobile. With such authority, the EPA might allow a particularly troubled city like Los Angeles "an indefinite period" beyond the current 1977 deadline to develop public transportation, Mr. Fairbanks said.
Although transportation controls mesh with the administration's desire to reduce auto use for fuel-conservation purposes, even the EPA believes the extent of their use required by the current law is too severe. To make Los Angeles air clean in summer months, for example, could require an 80% reduction in gasoline use – clearly a severe economic blow to a city so dependent on motor vehicles.
The White House also is likely to seek definite legislative backing for tall stacks and favorable meteorological conditions as accepted techniques for dispersing pollutants such as sulphur dioxide.
According to Mr. Fairbanks, the legislative authority is needed even if the limited use of such "intermittent controls" currently allowed by the EPA is to survive a court challenge. As seen by Mr. Train, though, the tentative proposal would be a major setback for EPA policy requiring use of stack scrubbers for control of sulphur emissions – a technology the coal and utility industries bitterly insist is still unproven.
Mr. Train said he's further concerned that the President might propose to give "economic and social" effects of air-pollution control equal standing with the health benefits. Currently, the EPA actually does weigh factors such as loss of jobs and factory closedowns when it writes regulations, but it generally gives more weight to protection of public health.
Yet another proposed amendment said by Mr. Train to be under study is relaxation of the clean air standards themselves. These set the maximum levels for major pollutants such as carbon monoxide and soot and, according to some critics, are unnecessarily strict.
Another measure the President has before him is a proposal to seek broad energy conservation powers, Mr. Fairbanks said. This would give the administration a free hand in ordering steps from reduced use of outdoor lighting to specifying service station hours.
Mr. Nixon intends to veto the emergency energy bill passed by Congress because of a provision that would limit the price of nearly all domestic oil to $5.25 a barrel. Currently, only "old" oil produced at pre-1972 levels is subject to this ceiling price. "New" oil above 1972 levels and oil from "stripper" wells, those extracting less than 10 barrels a day, are exempt. This oil, amounting to about 25% of domestic production, sold as high as $10.25 a barrel in January, the government said.
Mr. MUSKIE. We already know what the administration wanted to do to environmental laws under the guise of the energy emergency. In early November 1973 representatives of the administration submitted an informal text of legislation that was printed for the use of the Senate Interior Committee on November 6, 1973.
A blanket gutting of the Clean Air Act was proposed in section 203, which reads in part :
The President may–
(4) acting through the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, exempt, by order and without the necessity for hearing, any fuel-burning stationary source of air pollutant emissions from any emissions limitation in any regulation promulgated under the Clean Air Act or any State air quality statute or local regulation, which limitation may apply to such source in a manner which restricts the source's ability to use any fuel either allocated to it pursuant to this Act, or approved for use by it in conformity with the purposes of this Act; such exemptions shall be granted for a period not to exceed the duration of the energy emergency or as necessary to comply with section 203(3);
The same section called for exceptions from a Clean Water Act, even though the regulations to be waived had not even been proposed:
The President may–
(5) acting through the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, exempt, by order and without the necessity for hearing, any refinery or other installation producing or finishing any fuel and any electrical generating facilities from any discharge limitations or other requirements in Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq), or any State water quality statute, and from any discharge or other limitations in any waste water discharge permit issued by any State or Federal agency pursuant to section 402 of the Federal Water pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1342), or any State water quality statute, whenever he determines that such exemption is necessary to assure adequate production of fuels or energy or to effectuate the purposes of this Act;such exemptions shall be granted for a period not to exceed the duration of the energy emergency or as necessary to comply with section 203 (c) ;
(6) enter into appropriate understandings, arrangements, or agreements with concerned domestic interests, foreign states or foreign nationals, or international organizations, to adjust and allocate imports of fossil fuels, or take such other action, and for such time, as he deems necessary, with respect to trade in fossil fuels, in order to achieve the purposes of this Act.
Mr. President, I include the entire administration proposal printed November 6, 1973, at the end of my remarks.
Mr. President, there must be those in the administration who would use this veto as a way to get wider authority to undermine the environmental law. And, for that reason, I urge those of us who are concerned with me in the environment to vote to override the President's veto.
There being no objection, the proposal was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
DRAFT OF THE EMERGENCY ENERGY ACT ADMINISTRATION PROPOSAL
TITLE I – FINDINGS AND PURPOSE
SEC: 101. FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS: The Congress hereby finds and declares that:
(1) Adequate energy supplies are essential to the security of the Nation and the maintenance of its defenses at home and abroad.
(2) The availability of clean, reasonably priced supplies of energy are equally critical to the maintenance of the health, safety, and welfare of the American people in insuring adequate supplies of food, shelter, health, education, employment, and emergency services.
(3) As the population increases and the demands for a better living environment increase, the American people will require increasing quantities of clean energy supplies.
(4) Responding to the demands for increasing quantities of clean energy, will require more efficient utilization of available energy supplies and both the development of new domestic resources and, at least in the next decade, increased levels of imports of energy supplies from abroad.
(5) Disruptions in the availability of imported energy supplies, particularly crude oil and petroleum products, pose a serious risk to national security, economic well-being, and the health and welfare of the American people.
(6) It is necessary that the United State maintain the freedom to pursue a foreign policy independent of and unrestricted by the possible need to obtain supplies of natural resources including fossil fuels and other forms of energy from foreign, states.
(7) Potential interruptions of important energy supplies, both in the near term and in the future, will require emergency measures to reduce energy consumption, increase domestic production of energy resources, provide for equitable distribution of available supplies to all Americans, and take appropriate international action to promote sharing of foreign supplies of fuels.
(8) The most effective use and development of domestic resources and imports of energy sources from abroad will require coordination of interstate and foreign commerce related to energy as well as a comprehensive national program which will take into account the diversity of needs, climate, and available fuel resources in different parts of the United States.
(9) The development of a comprehensive energy policy to serve all of the people of the United States necessitates the regulation of intrastate delivery and use of energy resources in order to insure the effective regulation of foreign and interstate commerce in energy service delivery.
SEC. 102. PURPOSES.– The purposes of this Act are to–
(1) Provide the President with such authority as may be needed to meet any emergency deficiency in energy supplies, including emergencies resulting from foreign restrictions on the exportation of energy resources and the limitations of domestic supply and to insure the best use of existing resources consistent with the national security and the requirements of the health, safety, and welfare of the American people.
(2) Insure that measures taken to meet existing emergencies are consistent, as nearly as possible, with existing national commitments to protect and improve the environment in which we live.
(3) Minimize the adverse effects of such shortages or dislocations on the economy and industrial capacity of the Nation, including employment, to preserve the independent sectors of the domestic energy industries.
TITLE II
SEC. 201. DECLARATION OF EMERGENCY.
(1) If the President determines that there is an actual or threatened shortage of essential supplies of fuel, including fossil fuels of any kind or description, or of energy, including electrical energy supplies which may impair the national security, economic well-being, health, or welfare of the American people, he shall proclaim the existence of an energy emergency, and shall in addition to other authority conferred by law, take such of the following actions, as he deems necessary to deal with the actual or threatened shortage.
(2) The declaration of an energy shall, for the purposes of this Act, terminate one year after the date of its proclamation, unless it shall have been terminated earlier by the President. The President may extend the declaration of an energy emergency for additional periods not exceeding one year. Prior to any such extension, the President shall provide notice to the Congress of his intention to proclaim such an extension.
Sec. 202. AUTHORITY. – During any energy emergency proclaimed by the President pursuant to this Act, the President may exercise any authority vested in him on date of enactment of this Act by the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, as amended, and the Export Administration Act of 1969, as amended, and the Export Administration Act of 1970, as amended, to accomplish the purposes of this Act notwithstanding any prior expiration of any of those Acts.
SEC. 203. EMERGENCY FUEL DISTRIBUTION ACTIONS.– In addition to the authority conferred by section 202 of this Act the President is authorized during any energy emergency to establish priorities of use, allocation systems for wholesale purchasers and rationing systems to end users and, notwithstanding any other provision of State or Federal law, in exercising this authority, the President may–
(1) allocate all supplies of fuels among all producers, refiners, gas plant operators, wholesale marketers, jobbers, suppliers, distributors, terminal operators, or any person, firm, or corporation, supplying or purchasing, wholesale or retail, or using any fuel of any derivation, including coal, natural gas, or petroleum of any condition, including crude or refined, or quality, including heating value and chemical content;
(2) require any person, firm, or corporation having in its possession or having contracted for or having the capability to produce any supplies of fuel to distribute or redirect the distribution of such supplies, by such quantity and quality as he may specify, to whatever wholesale or retail purchasers of fuel he may designate on a fair and equitable basis.
(3) order the owner or operator of any fuel-burning installation having the capability, as determined, under regulations prescribed by the President and after consultation with the Federal Power Commission with respect to matters under its jurisdiction, to convert or preclude from converting from the use of one fuel to the use of another or alternative fuel and to effectuate such conversion; any installation so converted or precluded from conversion will be permitted to continue to use such fuel for at least one year;
(4) acting through the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, exempt, by order and without the necessity for hearing, any fuel-burning stationary source of air pollutant emissions from any emissions limitation in any regulation promulgated under the Clean Air Act or any State air quality statute or local regulation, which limitation may apply to such source in a manner which restricts the source's ability to use any fuel either allocated to it pursuant to this Act, or approved for use by it in conformity with the purposes of this Act; such exemptions shall be granted for a period not to exceed the duration of the energy emergency or as necessary to comply with section 203 (3) ;
(5) acting through the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, exempt, by order and without the necessity for hearing, any refinery, or other installation producing or finishing any fuel and any electrical generating facilities from any discharge limitations or other requirements in any regulations adopted pursuant to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.), or any State water quality statute, and from any discharge or other limitations in any waste water discharge permit issued by any State or Federal agency pursuant to section 402 of the. Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U S.C. 1342), or any State water quality statute, whenever he determines that such exemption is necessary to assure adequate production of fuel, or energy or to effectuate the purposes of this Act; such exemptions shall be granted for a period not to exceed the duration of the energy emergency or as necessary to comply with section 205(c);
(6) enter into appropriate understandings, arrangements, or agreements with concerned domestic interests, foreign states or foreign nationals, or international organizations, to adjust and allocate imports of fossil fuels, or take such other action, and for such time, as he deems necessary; with respect to trade in fossil fuels, in order to achieve the purposes of this Act.
SEC. 204. EMERGENCY ACTIONS TO REDUCE ENERGY CONSUMPTION.
(1) During an energy emergency, the President is authorized to impose emergency restrictions on public or private activities which involve or result in the use of fuel or energy resources which may include, but are not limited to: transportation control plans; restrictions against the use of fuel or energy for decorative lighting, outdoor advertising, recreational activities or other nonessential uses of energy; limitations on operating hours of commercial establishments and public services, such as schools; temperature restrictions in office and public buildings, including wholesale and retail business establishments, and other structures; and a requirement that the States adopt restrictions on speed limits.
(2) The President may initiate and carry out voluntary energy conservation programs such as public education programs and voluntary reductions in energy use.
(3) To encourage the use of funds authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973 for mass transit capital improvements, the Federal matching share ceiling shall be increased to an amount not to exceed 80 per centum on non-highway public mass transit projects involving the construction of fixed rail facilities or the purchase of passenger equipment including rolling stock for any mode of mass transit, or both, when such projects are funded pursuant to Section 142 of title 23, United States Code, and to further insure the equitable use of such funds, Section 164(a) and Section 165(b) of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973 are hereby repealed.
(4) Energy control fees: In order to deter consumption of energy resources or encourage the use of alternate fuels, the President may impose fees on energy consumption, at either the wholesale or retail level, at rates not to exceed __ per centum of a representative market value of the item involved.
SEC. 205. EMERGENCY ACTIONS TO INCREASE ENERGY SUPPLIES.– During an emergency the President is authorized to–
(1) (a) Require production of the developed oil and gas resources from any national petroleum reserves, including the naval petroleum reserves, at the maximum rate which could be sustained without detriment to the ultimate recovery of oil and gas under sound engineering and economic principles. Such production is attributable to, and shall meet the needs of production for "national defense purposes", as used in section 7422, title 10, United States Code, as amended, and related sections. Production shall be required under this section only if the energy emergency requires such production to satisfy national security requirements, as determined by the President.
(b) Require expeditious exploration and further development of these reserves to determine the amount of oil and gas reserves located thereon; and
(2) Regulate the conservation and production of crude oil and natural gas. Those regulations shall take precedence over State regulations on crude oil and natural gas which are inconsistent with the regulations of the President.
SEC. 206. RELATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL REQUIREMENTS.
(1) No action taken under this Act shall, for a period of one year after the initiation of such action, be deemed a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment within the meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (83 Stat. 852). However, prior to taking any action if practicable or in any event within sixty days after taking or initiating any action that has potentially significant impact on the environment, an environmental evaluation, with analysis equivalent to that required under Section 102(2) (c) of the National Environmental Policy Act to the extent practicable within the time constraints, shall be prepared and circulated to appropriate Federal, State, and local government agencies and to the public, provided, however, that such an environmental evaluation shall not be required where the action in question has been preceded by preparation and issuance of an environmental impact statement under Section 102(2) (c) of the National Environmental Policy Act. If any such action is to be continued beyond one year from the date of its initiation, the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act shall apply in full to any such action to which they would otherwise apply.
TITLE III – RESPONSIBILITIES OF FEDERAL REGULATORY AGENCIES
SEC. 301. It is the sense of Congress that the public interest requires that governmental actions relating to energy control and transportation policies be coordinated with a comprehensive national energy policy that will insure the development and conservation of existing energy resources to meet the energy needs of the Nation in the future. Consistent with their existing statutory responsibilities, executive agencies as defined in Section 105 of title 5, United States Code, shall take into account the effect of their proposed actions on the development and conservation of foreign and domestic energy resources of the United States, and shall take such emergency action as may be necessary to develop and conserve energy during an energy emergency declared by the President.
SEC. 302. During an energy emergency the designated regulatory agencies shall have the following emergency authorities:
(1) The Federal Power Commission may, without notice or hearing, suspend for the duration of such emergency, the applicability of sections 4 and 7 of the Natural Gas Act, as amended, to sales to pipelines which sales would, but for such suspension, otherwise be subject to the provisions of such sections. In order to protect the interests of consumers, the Federal Power Commission is authorized, for the duration of the energy emergency, to monitor the wellhead prices of such natural gas sales under contracts subject to these provisions, and, if necessary establish ceilings as to future rates or charges for such sales. In determining whether to establish such ceilings and in setting their level, that Commission shall take the following factors into account:
(A) the current and projected price of other fuels at the point of utilization, adjusted to reflect a comparable heating value;
(B) the premium nature of natural gas and its environmental superiority over many other fuels;
(C) current and projected prices for the importation of liquefied natural gas and the manufacture of synthetic gaseous fuels; and
(D) the adequacy of these prices to provide necessary incentive for exploration and production of domestic reserves of natural gas and the efficient end-use of such supplies.
(2) In any proceeding under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, for which a hearing is required to grant or amend any operating license for a nuclear power reactor, the Commission may issue a temporary operating license under the authority of this Act in advance of the conduct of such hearing: Provided, however, That in all other respects the requirements of that Act including, but not limited to, matters of public health and safety, shall be met. No such temporary operating license may be issued for a period in excess of eighteen months.
(3) The Interstate Commerce Commission, the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the Federal Maritime Commission shall have, for the duration of any national emergency, in addition to their existing powers the authority to review and adjust a carrier’s operating authority in order to conserve fuel. This authority includes but is not limited to adjusting the level of operations, altering points served, shortening distance traveled, and reviewing or adjusting rate schedules accordingly. Actions taken pursuant to this paragraph may be taken, notwithstanding any other provision of law, after summary hearings under procedures prescribed by the regulatory agency but any person adversely affected by an action shall be entitled to a full hearing, as prescribed by law, if petition is filed with the agency within __ days. Consistent with the purposes of this Act, the Interstate Commerce Commission may enlarge, modify, or remove the various categories of exempt carriage under the Interstate Commerce Act.
(4) All agencies under subsection 3022 of this title shall report to the Congress within ninety days of the proclamation of an energy emergency by the President the actions taken by them pursuant to this title. They shall submit additional reports every ninety days thereafter for the duration of the emergency.
TITLE IV – GENERAL PROVISIONS
SEC. 401. The President is authorized to delegate the responsibility vested in him by this Act (other than the authority to proclaim energy emergencies) to any officer or agency of the Federal Government or any State or local government.
SEC. 402. PENALTIES: Any person who–
(a) Willfully violates any order or regulation issued pursuant to this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed $__for each violation.
(b) Violates any order or regulation issued pursuant to this Act shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $___ for each day he is in violation of this Act.
SEC.403. INJUNCTIVE RELIEF – The United States district courts for the districts in which a violation of this Act or regulations issued pursuant thereto occur, or are about to occur, shall have jurisdiction to issue a temporary restraining order, preliminary or permanent injunction to prevent such violation. Such injunction may be issued upon application of the Attorney General in compliance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
SEC. 404. JURISDICTION OF STATE COURTS. – Violations of State orders or regulations issued pursuant to the requirements of this Act shall be punishable upon conviction in appropriate courts of the several States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or territories. Such courts shall have authority to impose civil penalties or grant injunctive or other relief, consistent with the jurisdiction, with respect to actions which are taken or threatened to be taken in violation of state orders or regulations issued pursuant to the requirements of this Act.
SEC. 405. AUTHORIZATIONS. – There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such funds as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act, and during an energy emergency, such funds may be expended without regard to fiscal year limitations.
SEC. 406. RELATION TO OTHER LEGISLATION.– Except as expressly provided in this Act, nothing in this Act shall be deemed to limit or restrict any authority conferred by any other Act.
SEC. 407. ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS. – Sections 205, 206, 207, 211(a), 212(a), 212(e), 212(f), 212(g), and 213 of the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970 (as in effect on the date of enactment of this Act), shall apply to the administration of any regulations promulgated under this Act, and to any action taken by the President (or his delegate) under this Act, as if such regulation had been promulgated, such order had been issued, or such action had been taken under the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970; except that the expiration of authority to issue and enforce orders and regulations under Section 218 of such Act shall not affect any authority to amend and enforce the regulation or to issue and enforce any order under this Act.
SEC. 408. This Act expires on June 31, 19__.