30 U.S.C. § 1101 : US Code - Section 1101: Congressional findings

Search 30 U.S.C. § 1101 : US Code - Section 1101: Congressional findings

The Congress hereby finds that -
(1) the Nation is currently suffering a critical shortage of
environmentally acceptable forms of energy;
(2) the inadequate organizational structures and levels of
funding for energy research have limited the Nation's current and
future options for meeting energy needs;
(3) electric energy is a clean and convenient form of energy at
the location of its use and is the only practicable form of
energy in some modern applications, but the demand for electric
energy in every region of the United States is taxing all of the
alternative energy sources presently available and is projected
to increase; some of the sources available for electric power
generation are already in short supply, and the development and
use of other sources presently involve undesirable environmental
impacts;
(4) the Nation's critical energy problems can be solved only if
a national commitment is made to dedicate the necessary financial
resources, and enlist the cooperation of the private and public
sectors, in developing geothermal resources and other
nonconventional sources of energy;
(5) the conventional geothermal resources which are presently
being used have limited total potential; but geothermal resources
which are different from those presently being used, and which
have extremely large energy content, are known to exist;
(6) some geothermal resources contain energy in forms other
than heat; examples are methane and extremely high pressures
available upon release as kinetic energy;
(7) some geothermal resources contain valuable byproducts such
as potable water and mineral compounds which should be processed
and recovered as national resources;
(8) technologies are not presently available for the
development of most of these geothermal resources, but
technologies for the generation of electric energy from
geothermal resources are potentially economical and
environmentally desirable, and the development of geothermal
resources offers possibilities of process energy and other
nonelectric applications;
(9) much of the known geothermal resources exist on the public
lands;
(10) Federal financial assistance is necessary to encourage the
extensive exploration, research, and development in geothermal
resources which will bring these technologies to the point of
commercial application;
(11) the advancement of technology with the cooperation of
private industry for the production of useful forms of energy
from geothermal resources is important with respect to the
Federal responsibility for the general welfare, to facilitate
commerce, to encourage productive harmony between man and his
environment, and to protect the public interest; and
(12) the Federal Government should encourage and assist private
industry through Federal assistance for the development and
demonstration of practicable means to produce useful energy from
geothermal resources with environmentally acceptable processes.