15 U.S.C. § 2703: Advanced systems program…

Summary

The Secretary of Energy must set up a program inside the Department of Energy to develop advanced car propulsion systems within 5 years after February 25, 1978, or sooner if possible. The program must start new projects and speed up existing ones. It must give first priority to systems that can use different kinds of fuel. The work must add to private industry research and must not replace or copy what industry is already doing. The Secretary can make contracts and grants with federal agencies, labs, universities, nonprofits, companies, or individuals to do research that helps long-term goals like fuel economy and environmental protection. The Secretary must consider using Federal labs but may not spend more than 60 percent of the program funds directly in those labs. The Department must do tests, evaluations, share information, report on results, and boost basic science research where needed. Within 60 days after February 25, 1978, the Secretary must issue rules that require a written certification for each contract or project saying it adds to, and does not supplant or duplicate, industry research; the certification must discuss how the project relates to industry work and issues like cost sharing and patent rights. Those certifications go to the House Science Committee and the Senate Energy Committee, courts may not review them, and public disclosure rules still apply. The Secretary must explain compliance in required reports and in each annual budget. These rules do not apply to contracts or projects approved before February 25, 1978, or to their renewals.

Title 15, §2703

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(a)Establishment and conduct of program

The Secretary of Energy shall establish, within the Department of Energy, a program to insure the development of advanced automobile propulsion systems within 5 years after February 25, 1978, or within the shortest practicable time, consistent with appropriate research and development technique. In conducting such program, the Secretary of Energy shall—

(1)establish and conduct new projects and accelerate existing projects which may contribute to the development of advanced automobile propulsion systems;

(2)give priority attention to the development of advanced propulsion systems with appropriate attention to those advanced propulsion systems which are flexible in the type of fuel used; and

(3)insure that research and development under this chapter supplements, but neither supplants nor duplicates, the automotive research and development efforts of private industry.

(b)Contracts and grants with Federal agencies, laboratories, etc.

The Secretary of Energy shall, in fulfilling his responsibilities under this chapter, make contracts and grants with any Federal agency, laboratory, university, nonprofit organization, industrial organization, public or private agency, institution, organization, corporation, partnership, or individual for research and development leading to advanced automobile propulsion systems which are likely to help meet the Nation’s long-term goals with respect to fuel economy, environmental protection, and other objectives.

(c)Federal laboratories; priority for financial assistance; functions

In providing financial assistance under this chapter, the Secretary of Energy shall give full consideration to the capabilities of Federal laboratories, except that not more than 60 per centum of the funds appropriated pursuant to the authorization under section 2710 of this title shall be directly expended in Federal laboratories. In accordance with section 2706 of this title, such laboratories shall be available for testing components and subsystems which, in the Secretary of Energy’s judgment, is likely to contribute to the development of advanced automobile propulsion systems.

(d)Evaluations, testing, information dissemination, and reporting functions

The Secretary of Energy shall conduct evaluations, arrange for tests, and disseminate information pursuant to section 2706 of this title and submit reports required under section 2709 of this title.

(e)Intensification of research in basic areas by Department of Energy

The Department of Energy shall intensify research in key basic science areas in which the lack of knowledge limits development of advanced automobile propulsion systems.

(f)Program provisions and requirements; administrative and judicial procedures applicable to contracts, grants, or projects; additional information for reports and budget submissions; nonretroactivity of provisions and requirements

(1)The Secretary of Energy shall insure that the conduct of the program as defined in subsection (a) of this section—

(A)supplements the automotive propulsion system research and development efforts of industry;

(B)is not formulated in a manner that will supplant private industry research and development or displace or lessen industry’s research and development; and

(C)avoids duplication of private research and development.

(2)To that end, the Secretary of Energy shall issue administrative regulations, within 60 days after February 25, 1978, which shall specify procedures, standards, and criteria for the timely review for compliance of each new contract, grant, Department of Energy project, or other agency project funded or to be funded under the authority of this Act. Such regulations shall require that the Secretary of Energy or his designee shall certify that each such contract, grant, or project satisfies the requirement of this subsection, and shall include in such certification a discussion of the relationship of any related or comparable industry research and development, in terms of this subsection, to the proposed research and development under the authority of this Act. The discussion shall also address related issues, such as cost sharing and patent rights.

(3)Such certifications shall be available to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate. The provisions of chapter 5 of title 5 shall not apply to such certifications and no court shall have any jurisdiction to review the preparation or adequacy of such certifications; but section 553 of title 5 and section 5916 of title 42 shall apply to public disclosure of such certifications.

(4)The Secretary of Energy also shall include in the report required by section 2709(a) of this title a detailed discussion of how each research and development contract, grant, or project funded under the authority of this Act satisfies the requirement of this subsection.

(5)Further, the Secretary of Energy in each annual budget submission to the Congress, or amendment thereto, for the programs authorized by this Act shall describe how each identified research and development effort in such submission satisfies the requirements of this subsection.

(6)The provisions and requirements of this subsection shall not apply with respect to any contract, grant, or project which was entered into, made, or formally approved and initiated prior to February 25, 1978, or with respect to any renewal or extension thereof.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This Act, referred to in subsec. (f), is Pub. L. 95–238, Feb. 25, 1978, 92 Stat. 47, known as the Department of Energy Act of 1978—Civilian Applications. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Tables.

Amendments

1994—Subsec. (f)(3). Pub. L. 103–437 substituted “Committee on Science, Space, and Technology” for “Committee on Science and Technology”.

§2703 Advanced Systems Program Implementation by Secretary of Energy