§5920. Financial support program for municipal waste reprocessing demonstration facilities
(a) Statement of purpose
It is the purpose of this section-
(1) to assure adequate Federal support to foster a program to demonstrate municipal waste reprocessing for the production of fuel and energy intensive products; and
(2) to gather information about the technological, economic, environmental, and social costs, benefits, and impacts of such demonstration facilities.
(b) Grants, contracts, price supports, and cooperative agreements implementing programs; aggregate amount of funds available; "municipal" defined; ownership, operation, etc., of facilities; Federal share; price support program regulations for revenue producing products
(1) The Secretary is authorized and directed, to the extent provided in appropriation Acts, to establish such a demonstration program by making grants, contracts, price supports, and cooperative agreements pursuant to this chapter or any combination thereof for the establishment of municipal waste reprocessing demonstration facilities. For the purpose of this section municipal waste shall include but not be limited to municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, and other municipal organic wastes.
(2) The aggregate amount of funds available for grants, contracts, price supports, and cooperative agreements for municipal waste reprocessing demonstration facilities shall not exceed $20,000,000 in the fiscal year ending September 30, 1978.
(3) For purposes of this section the term "municipal" shall include any city, town, borough, county, parish, district, or other public body created by or pursuant to State law.
(4) Municipal waste reprocessing demonstration facilities established under this section shall be owned or operated (or both owned and operated) by the municipality and shall involve the recovery of energy or energy intensive products. Such facilities may be established by any public or private entity, by contract or otherwise, as may be determined by the local government which will own or operate (or both own and operate) such facilities and to which financial support is provided. The Federal share for any such facility to which this section applies shall not exceed 75 per centum of the cost of such facility, and not more than $40,000,000 in Federal funds under this section may be used for the construction of any one facility.
(5) The Secretary shall promulgate such regulations as he deems necessary, pursuant to section 5906(a)(4) and section 5906(c)(1) and (6) of this title, for purposes of establishing a price support program for revenue producing products of municipal waste reprocessing demonstration facilities.
(c) Consultation with Environmental Protection Agency to insure compliance with provisions relating to solid waste disposal full-scale demonstration facilities; administration of projects subject to May 7, 1976, Interagency Agreement
(1) The Secretary shall consult with the Environmental Protection Agency to assure that the provisions of section 6984 of this title are applied in carrying out this section.
(2) Any energy-related research, development, or demonstration project for the conversion (including bioconversion) of municipal waste carried out by the Secretary pursuant to this chapter or any other Act shall be administered in accordance with the May 7, 1976, Interagency Agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Research and Development Administration on the development of energy from solid wastes; and specifically, in accordance with such Agreement (A) for those energy-related projects of mutual interest, planning will be conducted jointly by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Secretary, following which project responsibility will be assigned to one agency; (B) energy-related aspects of projects for recovery of fuels or energy intensive products from municipal waste as defined in this section shall be the responsibility of the Secretary including energy-related economic and institutional aspects; and (C) the Environmental Protection Agency shall retain responsibility for the environmental and other economic and institutional aspects of solid waste projects and for assurance that such projects are consistent with any applicable suggested guidelines published pursuant to section 6907 of this title, and any applicable State or regional waste management plan.
(d) Guidelines for obtaining program information from municipalities; availability of information, etc., to Congressional committees; annual reports to Congress; contents, etc.
(1) The Secretary shall establish such guidelines as he deems necessary for purposes of obtaining pertinent information from municipalities receiving funding under this section. These guidelines shall include but not be limited to methods of assessment and evaluation of projects authorized under this section. Such assessments and evaluations shall be presented by the Secretary to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources upon the request of either such committee.
(2) The Secretary shall annually submit a report to the Congress concerning the actions taken or not taken by the Secretary under this section during the preceding fiscal year, and including but not limited to (A) a discussion of the status of each demonstration facility and related facilities financed under this section, including progress made in the development of such facilities, and the expected or actual production from each such facility including byproduct production therefrom, and the distribution of such products and byproducts, (B) a statement of the financial condition of each such demonstration facility, (C) data concerning the environmental, community, and health and safety impacts of each such facility and the actions taken or planned to prevent or mitigate such impacts, (D) the administrative and other costs incurred by the Secretary and other Federal agencies in carrying out this program, and (E) such other data as may be helpful in keeping Congress and the public fully and currently informed about the program authorized by this section.
(3) The annual reports required by this subsection shall be a part of the annual report required by section 5914 of this title, except that the matters required to be reported by this subsection shall be clearly set out and identified in such annual reports. Such reports shall be transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and to the President of the Senate and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
(e) Transfer of part of program to other agency or authority
No part of the program authorized by this section shall be transferred to any other agency or authority, except pursuant to Act of Congress enacted after February 25, 1978.
(f) Compliance by municipalities receiving financial assistance with Federal and State environmental, etc., laws and regulations, and licensing requirements
Nothing in this section shall be construed as abrogating any obligations of any municipality receiving financial assistance pursuant to this section to comply with Federal and State environmental, land use, water, and health and safety laws and regulations or to obtain applicable Federal and State permits, licenses, and certificates.
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Amendments
1994-Subsec. (d)(1), (3).
Change of Name
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of House of Representatives treated as referring to Committee on Science of House of Representatives by section 1(a) of
Transfer of Functions
"Secretary", meaning Secretary of Energy, substituted for "Administrator" in subsecs. (b)(1), (5), (c)(1), and (d)(1), (2) and for "Energy Research and Development Administration" in subsec. (c)(2) pursuant to sections 301(a), 703, and 707 of
Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in section 8838 of this title.