42 U.S.C. § 6851 : US Code - Section 6851: Congressional findings and purpose

Search 42 U.S.C. § 6851 : US Code - Section 6851: Congressional findings and purpose

(a) The Congress finds that -
(1) the fastest, most cost-effective, and most environmentally
sound way to prevent future energy shortages in the United
States, while reducing the Nation's dependence on imported energy
supplies, is to encourage and facilitate, through major programs,
the implementation of energy conservation and renewable-resource
energy measures with respect to dwelling units, nonresidential
buildings, and industrial plants;
(2) current efforts to encourage and facilitate such measures
are inadequate as a consequence of -
(A) a lack of adequate and available financing for such
measures, particularly with respect to individual consumers and
owners of small businesses;
(B) a shortage of reliable and impartial information and
advisory services pertaining to practicable energy conservation
measures and renewable-resource energy measures and the cost
savings that are likely if they are implemented in such units,
buildings, and plants; and
(C) the absence of organized programs which, if they existed,
would enable consumers, especially individuals and owners of
small businesses, to undertake such measures easily and with
confidence in their economic value;
(3) major programs of financial incentives and assistance for
energy conservation measures and renewable-resource energy
measures in dwelling units, nonresidential buildings, and
industrial plants would -
(A) significantly reduce the Nation's demand for energy and
the need for petroleum imports;
(B) cushion the adverse impact of the high price of energy
supplies on consumers, particularly elderly and handicapped low-
income persons who cannot afford to make the modifications
necessary to reduce their residential energy use; and
(C) increase, directly and indirectly, job opportunities and
national economic output;
(4) the primary responsibility for the implementation of such
major programs should be lodged with the governments of the
States; the diversity of conditions among the various States and
regions of the Nation is sufficiently great that a wholly
federally administered program would not be as effective as one
which is tailored to meet local requirements and to respond to
local opportunities; the State should be allowed flexibility
within which to fashion such programs, subject to general Federal
guidelines and monitoring sufficient to protect the financial
investments of consumers and the financial interest of the United
States and to insure that the measures undertaken in fact result
in significant energy and cost savings which would probably not
otherwise occur;
(5) to the extent that direct Federal administration is more
economical and efficient, direct Federal financial incentives and
assistance should be extended through existing and proven Federal
programs rather than through new programs that would necessitate
new and separate administrative bureaucracies; and
(6) such programs should be designed and administered to
supplement, and not to supplant or in any other way conflict
with, State energy conservation programs under part C of title
III of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act [42 U.S.C. 6321 et
seq.]; the emergency energy conservation program carried out by
community action agencies pursuant to section 2809(a)(12) (!1) of
this title; and other forms of assistance and encouragement for
energy conservation.
(b) It is, therefore, the purpose of this subchapter to encourage
and facilitate the implementation of energy conservation measures
and renewable-resource energy measures in dwelling units,
nonresidential buildings, and industrial plants, through -
(1) supplemental State energy conservation plans; and
(2) Federal financial incentives and assistance.