15 U.S.C. § 793 : US Code - Section 793: Protection of public health and environment

Search 15 U.S.C. § 793 : US Code - Section 793: Protection of public health and environment

(a) Distribution of low sulfur fuel
Any allocation program provided for in section 792 of this title
or in the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act of 1973 [15 U.S.C. 751
et seq.],(!1) shall, to the maximum extent practicable, include
measures to assure that available low sulfur fuel will be
distributed on a priority basis to those areas of the United States
designated by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency as requiring low sulfur fuel to avoid or minimize adverse
impact on public health.
(b) Study of chronic effects of sulfur oxide emissions among
exposed populations
In order to determine the health effects of emissions of sulfur
oxides to the air resulting from any conversions to burning coal to
which section 119 (!1) of the Clean Air Act [42 U.S.C. 1857c-10]
applies, the Department of Health and Human Services shall, through
the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and in
cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency, conduct a
study of chronic effects among exposed populations. The sum of
$3,500,000 is authorized to be appropriated for such a study. In
order to assure that long-term studies can be conducted without
interruption, such sums as are appropriated shall be available
until expended.
(c) Major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of
the human environment
(1) No action taken under the Clean Air Act [42 U.S.C. 7401 et
seq.] shall 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 [42 U.S.C. 4321 et
seq.].
(2) No action under section 792 of this title for a period of one
year after initiation of such action shall 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 [42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.]. However, before any action
under section 792 of this title that has a significant impact on
the environment is taken, if practicable, or in any event within
sixty days after such action is taken, an environmental evaluation
with analysis equivalent to that required under section 102(2)(C)
of the National Environmental Policy Act [42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)], to
the greatest extent practicable within this time constraint, shall
be prepared and circulated to appropriate Federal, State, and local
government agencies and to the public for a thirty-day comment
period after which a public hearing shall be held upon request to
review outstanding environmental issues. Such an evaluation shall
not be required where the action in question has been preceded by
compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act by the
appropriate Federal agency. Any action taken under section 792 of
this title which will be in effect for more than a one-year period
or any action to extend an action taken under section 792 of this
title to a total period of more than one year shall be subject to
the full provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act,
notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter.
(d) Importation of hydroelectric energy
In order to expedite the prompt construction of facilities for
the importation of hydroelectric energy thereby helping to reduce
the shortage of petroleum products in the United States, the
Federal Power Commission is hereby authorized and directed to issue
a Presidential permit pursuant to Executive Order 10485 of
September 3, 1953, for the construction, operation, maintenance,
and connection of facilities for the transmission of electric
energy at the borders of the United States without preparing an
environmental impact statement pursuant to section 102 of the
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 [42 U.S.C. 4332] for
facilities for the transmission of electric energy between Canada
and the United States in the vicinity of Fort Covington, New York.