§ 8911 — Comprehensive Study Of Projected Impact On Atmospheric Levels Of Fossil Fuel Combustion, Etc.

(1) The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to carry out a comprehensive study of the projected impact, on the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, of fossil fuel combustion, coal-conversion and related synthetic fuels activities authorized in this Act, and other sources. Such study should also include an assessment of the economic, physical, climatic, and social effects of such impacts. In conducting such study the Office and the Academy are encouraged to work with domestic and foreign governmental and non-governmental entities, and international entities, so as to develop an international, worldwide assessment of the problems involved and to suggest such original research on any aspect of such problems as the Academy deems necessary. (2) The President shall report to the Congress within six months after June 30, 1980, regarding the status of the Office’s negotiations to implement the study required under this section. (b) A report including the major findings and recommendations resulting from the study required under this section shall be submitted to the Congress by the Office and the Academy not later than three years after June 30, 1980. The Academy contribution to such report shall not be subject to any prior clearance or review, nor shall any prior clearance or conditions be imposed on the Academy as part of the agreement made by the Office with the Academy under this section. Such report shall in any event include recommendations regarding— (1) how a long-term program of domestic and international research, monitoring, modeling, and assessment of the causes and effects of varying levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide should be structured, including comments by the Office on the interagency requirements of such a program and comments by the Secretary of State on the international agreements required to carry out such a program; (2) how the United States can best play a role in the development of such a long-term program on an international basis; (3) what domestic resources should be made available to such a program; (4) how the ongoing United States Government carbon dioxide assessment program should be modified so as to be of increased utility in providing information and recommendations of the highest possible value to government policy makers; and (5) the need for periodic reports to the Congress in conjunction with any long-term program the Office and the Academy may recommend under this section. (c) The Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Commerce, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Director of the National Science Foundation shall furnish to the Office or the Academy upon request any information which the Office or the Academy determines to be necessary for purposes of conducting the study required by this section. (d) The Office shall provide a separate assessment of the interagency requirements to implement a comprehensive program of the type described in the third sentence of subsection (b).