primary energy source as well as the AEC, in cooperation with private ineconomic and commercial viability of dustry, is directed to "conduct, encourproducing synthetic energy supplies age, and promote basic and applied from agricultural products and wastes. scientific research to develop effective, And within 18 months of enactment economical, and environmentally acof the measure, the ERMP chairman is ceptable processes and equipment for to submit to Congress a federal re- . . . utilizing all forms of geothermal research strategy for providing energy sources." AEC is also directed to "consupplies to meet the nation's needs be- duct engineering and technical work yond the year 2000. In addition to pro- including the design, construction, and viding an assessment of earlier research testing of pilot plants to develop and programs, ERMP is to make recom- improve geothermal energy processes." mendations for the long-term, includHow much of all this the House Inteing commercially demonstrating nucle- rior and Insular Affairs Committee will ar fusion, and commercially advancing incorporate into its bill—and later the the use of hydrogen as a primary ener- House will accept—isn't clear. At press gy source.. To get the program moving, S. 1283 provides for $800 million per year in fiscal years 1974 and 1975, more than current federal energy R&D funding The Labor Department's two-year eflevels. The aim is to maintain an aver- fort that ended this fall to re-employ age of $2 billion per year in such funds out-of-work engineers, scientists, and for the next decade. The bill also pro- technicians is characterized as "reavides for various forms of federal par- sonably successful" by the General Acticipation in energy R&D efforts, in- counting Office. But the investigative cluding: arm of Congress points out that the de• Joint federal-industry corpora- partment spent far less on the effort tions, in which the Government than the $42 million planned, a figure publicized widely. Whats more, GAO provides up to 90% of the funds. • Contractural arrangements with strongly implies that Labor inflated corporations, consortiums, universities, the total for the number of out-of-work persons helped by the Technology Moand nonprofit institutions. • Contracts for building and operat- bilization and Reemployment Program (TMRP). ing federal facilities. • Federal purchases or price guarGAO's postmortem analysis* conantees for products of demonstration cludes that a need to re-employ these plants or other activities. professionals still exists, although at a • Federal loans to the private sector "somewhat diminished" level. Rather for conducting demonstrations of new than killing TMRP, Labor should contechnologies. tinue it on an ad hoc basis, GAO says. The bill also requires that the TMRP was authorized by President ERMP team, in evaluating energy Nixon on April 2, 1971, when an estiR&D proposals that seek federal par- mated 75,000 to 100,000 engineers, sciticipation in some way, give priority to entists, and technicians were unemthose undertakings in which, among ployed. According to Labor's goals other things: then, which are cited by GAO, federal • "The urgency of public need for funds would help about 30,000 profesthe potential results of the R&D or sionals find jobs and 40,000 overall demonstration effort is high, and it is would be placed in two years. Manunlikely that similar results would be power Development and Training Act achieved in a timely manner in the ab- funds of $40 million, chiefly for retrainsence of federal assistance. ing, job search, and relocation grants, • "The potential opportunities for and $2 million for skill conversion non-federal interests to recapture the studies were allocated. Actual funds investment in the undertaking through spent, however, total some $28 million. the normal commercial exploitation of Using figures supplied C&EN by the proprietary knowledge appear inade- Labor Department (GAO's report inquate to encourage timely results. cludes data only through March 31, • "There are limited opportunities 1973), the TMRP totals through Aug. for regulatory actions and incentives 31, 1973, are: 52,667 registrants, 12,224 other than federal financial assistance, of whom were directly aided by the including, but not limited to, end-use program in finding jobs, and 21,698 controls, tax and price incentives, and who were placed with other types of public education to induce non-federal federal-state aid. support of the effort." GAO's review, however, finds that in Other provisions of the bill authorize many instances placements were the President to take any action neces- claimed for persons not meeting the sary to obtain or allocate materials department's criteria for a placement, that are essential to the expeditious and that placements were claimed for progress of energy R&D efforts. persons never registered in the proA special geothermal energy title of gram. Job-finding credit was often the bill provides for loan guarantees of claimed, GAO contends, "when no eviup to $50 million and other federal ac- dence existed that the program had tions to push the commercial develop- provided any assistance." ment of geothermal energy sources. Labor's problems in placing these
time last week, the House committee was working with considerable dispatch in an effort to get its bill completed and to the House floor for a vote before Congress adjourns for Christmas and for the session. Chances were good that the committee wouldn't make it, however. So, the House version of S. 1283 probably will be taken up in January, early in the next session. This delay will also give proponents and opponents of the mandatory patent licensing provisions a chance to rally their forces in an effort to get the provisions deleted altogether, watered down, or kept intact.
GAO: jobless scientists still need help
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C&EN Dec. 24, 1973
professionals in new jobs can be attributed to a number of factors, GAO says. Perhaps the chief obstacle was the salary cut many highly paid aerospace workers had to take. Early data showed this cut to average about $2500 for professionals whose yearly salary ran from $10,000 to $15,000. There was a surprising reluctance to relocate. Employers feared the displaced workers would go back to their old jobs at the first opportunity to do so. And the economy was in a severe slump from 1968-72. GAO's survey of three local re-employment units finds that they made only limited efforts to find job opportunities in other areas, concentrating instead on jobs in their own high-unemployment area. And at the Van Nuys, Calif., unit, efforts were made to retrain workers as computer programers despite the fact that local employment service roles already carried 33 qualified business programers seeking work. GAO recommends that if Labor elects to continue TMRP in some form, it should improve local activities. These units should increase their use of existing nationwide job development tools, find out why persons on job search grants do not get job offers, provide posttraining placement assistance, and determine when institutional training could result in meaningful employment, GAO urges. Labor, which has yet to issue its report evaluating TMRP, apparently accepts some of these suggestions. And in a letter to GAO, Fred G. Clark, Labor's assistant secretary for administration and management, suggests that there be a permanent program or mechanism set up. A federal role, he says, "need not be contrary to decentralization under manpower revenue sharing. Only a national effort can focus on broader concerns that affect the nation's labor force and cross regional boundaries." *Report B-133182, Dec. 5, 1973, "Reemployment Assistance for Engineers, Scientists, and Technicians Unemployed Because of Aerospace and Defense Cutbacks." Available for $1.00 from the General Accounting Office, Room 6417, 441 G St., N.W., Washington, D.C.20548
