DEVELOPMENT AND ENERGY RESEARCH APPROPRIATION BILL, 1979 HEARINGS BEFORE A HUNTER L. SPILLAN, GEORGE A. URIAN, M. C. GREER, and DAVID R. OLSON, Staff Assistants A658 1978a Pt.5 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS GEORGE H. MAHON, Texas, Chairman JAMIE L. WHITTEN, Mississippi GEORGE E. SHIPLEY, Illinois ROBERT N. GIAIMO, Connecticut DAVID R. OBEY, Wisconsin EDWARD R. ROYBAL, California LOUIS STOKES, Ohio GUNN MCKAY, Utah TOM BEVILL, Alabama BILL CHAPPELL, Florida BILL D. BURLISON, Missouri BILL ALEXANDER, Arkansas YVONNE BRATHWAITE BURKE, JOHN P. MURTHA, Pennsylvania BOB TRAXLER, Michigan ROBERT B. DUNCAN, Oregon JOSEPH D. EARLY, Massachusetts MAX BAUCUS, Montana CHARLES WILSON, Texas LINDY (MRS. HALE) BOGGS, Louisiana ADAM BENJAMIN, JR., Indiana NORMAN D. DICKS, Washington MATTHEW F. MCHUGH, New York ELFORD A. CEDERBERG, Michigan J. KENNETH ROBINSON, Virginia WILLIAM L. ARMSTRONG, Colorado CLAIR W. BURGENER, California KEITH F. MAINLAND, Clerk and Staff Director (II) PUBLIC WORKS FOR WATER AND POWER DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH APPROPRIATION BILL, 1979 THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1978. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY SECRETARY OF ENERGY WITNESSES JAMES R. SCHLESINGER, SECRETARY DALE MYERS, UNDER SECRETARY JOHN D. YOUNG, DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY Mr. BEVILL. The Committee will come to order. Secretary Schlesinger, we are delighted to have you with us this morning, you and your staff. Your statement is rather extensive and contains good information. I understand you need to appear on the Senate side this afternoon for the Conference Committee on the National Energy Act legislation. If you will, just summarize your statement. That will give us time for questions and allow us to move along faster. We will insert the full statement in the record. [The full statement follows:] (1) STATEMENT OF THE SECRETARY Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, I am pleased to be present this morning to testify on behalf of the Department of Energy's Fiscal Year 1979 budget request. We meet to discuss this budget in a period of energy transition for our Nation. The shift away from oil and natural gas as this Nation's primary energy resources is inevitable, and its timing becomes increasingly critical with each estimate of future world oil production. At the present time, world production worldwide is about 60 million barrels per day; although earlier estimates were higher, I doubt that world oil production will reach more than 70 million barrels a day in the future. In the face of growing demand, these figures underscore the need for adaptation in American society before the early or mid-1980s, when the worldwide shortage in petroleum availability will make itself felt. At that time, the principal oil exporting nations are likely to have severe difficulties in supplying all the increases in demand expected to occur in the U.S. and other countries throughout the 1980s. When this occurs, if our Nation has not planned wisely and well, it will face difficulties as severe as anything we have experienced since the 1930s. the best of every American. Avoiding this will demand |