§8911 Comprehensive Study of Projected Impact on Atmospheric Levels of Fossil Fuel Combustion, Etc.

Summary

The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy must make an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to do a full study of how burning fossil fuels, coal conversion, and related synthetic-fuel activities allowed under this Act, plus other sources, will affect atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The study must also look at the economic, physical, climate, and social effects. The Office and the Academy are urged to work with U.S. and foreign governments, nongovernmental groups, and international bodies, and the Academy can call for extra research it thinks is needed. The President must tell Congress about the negotiation status within six months after June 30, 1980, and the Office and Academy must send a final report to Congress not later than three years after June 30, 1980. The Academy’s part of the report cannot be preapproved or changed by anyone else. The final report must include recommendations on a long-term research, monitoring, modeling, and assessment program (including the Office’s view on interagency needs and the Secretary of State’s view on international agreements), how the U.S. should help internationally, what money and resources are needed, how to improve the ongoing U.S. carbon dioxide assessment work, and whether Congress should get regular update reports. The Secretaries of Energy and Commerce, the EPA Administrator, and the NSF Director must give the Office or the Academy any information they ask for. The Office must also give a separate review of what other agencies would need to do to run the recommended program.