---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 5901"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "5901"
heading: "Congressional statement of findings"
release: "119-102"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/5901"
units:
  - "Chapter 74 — Nonnuclear Energy Research and Development"
---

# §5901. Congressional statement of findings


The Congress hereby finds that—

- (a) The Nation is suffering from a shortage of environmentally acceptable forms of [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7).
- (b) Compounding this [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7) shortage is our past and present failure to formulate a comprehensive and aggressive research and development [program](/usc/42/274l–1.md?p=4) designed to make available to American consumers our large domestic [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7) reserves including fossil fuels, nuclear fuels, geothermal resources, solar [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7), and other forms of [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7). This failure is partially because the unconventional [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7) technologies have not been judged to be economically competitive with traditional [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7) technologies.
- (c) The urgency of the Nation’s [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7) challenge will require commitments similar to those undertaken in the Manhattan and Apollo [projects](/usc/42/11360.md?p=20); it will require that the Nation undertake a research, development, and demonstration [program](/usc/42/274l–1.md?p=4) in nonnuclear [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7) technologies with a total Federal investment which may reach or exceed $20,000,000,000 over the next decade.
- (d) In undertaking such [program](/usc/42/274l–1.md?p=4), full advantage must be taken of the existing technical and managerial expertise in the various [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7) fields within Federal agencies and particularly in the private sector.
- (e) The Nation’s future [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7) needs can be met if a national commitment is made now to dedicate the necessary financial resources, to enlist our scientific and technological capabilities, and to accord the proper priority to developing new nonnuclear [energy](/usc/42/6311.md?p=7) options to serve national needs, conserve vital resources, and protect the environment.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 93–577, § 2, Dec. 31, 1974, 88 Stat. 1879.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title

Pub. L. 93–577, § 1(a), as added Pub. L. 109–58, title X, § 1009(b)(1), Aug. 8, 2005, 119 Stat. 934, provided that: “This Act [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Federal Nonnuclear Energy Research and Development Act of 1974’.”

### Definitions

Pub. L. 93–577, § 1(b), as added Pub. L. 109–58, title X, § 1009(b)(1), Aug. 8, 2005, 119 Stat. 934, provided that: “In this Act [enacting this chapter]: The term ‘Department’ means the Department of Energy. The term ‘Secretary’ means the Secretary of Energy.”