Municipal Waste to Energy Act of 1980
Latest action. Referred to House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.
Municipal Waste-to-Energy Act of 1980 - Title I: Research, Development and Demonstration - Requires the Director of the Office of Urban Waste Energy Management (established under this Act) to establish, conduct, and promote an accelerated research, development, and demonstration program for the recovery of energy from municipal wastes. Directs the Director to provide financial assistance in the form of grants, contracts, price supports, purchase guarantees, loan guarantees and cooperative agreements, or any combination thereof, to public or private entities to support the cost of planning, designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining experimental and demonstration facilities and modifications of existing facilities for demonstration purposes, for the conversion of municipal wastes into energy, or for the recovery of materials. Requires that such program be designed to achieve its goals within ten years after enactment of this Act. Amends the Federal Nonnuclear Energy Research and Development Act of 1974 to extend the financial support program to include public and private entity waste reprocessing demonstration facilities. Authorizes appropriations for fiscal year 1982 to carry out this title. Title II: Commercialization - Requires the Director to establish a program of financial assistance for commercial-scale projects designed for the conversion of municipal wastes into energy or the recovery of materials, including, in decreasing order of priority, price and loan guarantees, loans, and grants. Stipulates that such assistance shall be made to supplement but not to compete with nor supplant any private capital investment under authority of any other Federal law. Directs the Director to establish internal procedures, standards, and criteria for the timely review of compliance with such requirement of each new award of assistance for a specific proposed municipal waste processing project. Limits such financial assistance to a maximum of 75 percent of the total capital cost of that project. Prohibits any project receiving such assistance from thereafter being eligible for such assistance. Requires that any specific tax credit directly associated with such projects be considered in determining the need for financial assistance awarded under this title. Limits the amount of loans entered into for such projects to a maximum of 49 percent of the total capital costs of the project, unless the Director determines that such limit would prevent the financial viability of the proposed project. Sets forth requirements concerning the Director's authority to enter into, or make, such loans, loan guarantees, price guarantees, and grants. Directs the Director to conduct economic analyses of municipal waste-to-energy conversion technologies in other countries for publication and dissemination. Authorizes appropriations for fiscal year 1982 to carry out this title. Title III: General Provisions - Amends the Department of Energy Organization Act to establish an Office of Urban Waste Energy Management within the Department of Energy to perform the research, development, demonstration, and commercialization activities authorized under this Act. Directs the Director of such Office to prepare a program and management plan for such activities and to transmit such plan to specified congressional committees. Requires the Director to annually submit to the Congress a detailed description of such plan as in effect, with proposed modifications as necessary. Requires the Director to support science and engineering education programs to provide trained personnel to perform the activities required under this Act. Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Secretary of Commerce, and other appropriate agency heads to cooperate with the Director in carrying out duties under this Act and to provide the Director with information in their possession which is necessary for such purposes. Requires the Director to assure the full and complete dissemination of information concerning any project or other activity conducted under this Act to Federal, State, and local authorities, relevant segments of the economy, the scientific community, and the public in order to promote the early, widespread, and practical use of municipal waste-to-energy technologies. Directs the Director, in consultation with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Secretary of Commerce, to prepare and transmit to the Congress a report analyzing and assessing legal impediments and other barriers to the development and application of such technologies. Sets forth the components of such report. States that amounts received by the Director as repayment of loans made under this Act and other specified amounts shall be deposited in the Federal Treasury as miscellaneous receipts.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on February 27, 1980. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on February 27, 1980: Referred to House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 96th Congress (1979-80), 613 of the 12,581 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 4.9 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
HAMILTON FISH (R-NY) introduced it on February 27, 1980, and 20 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 12 Democrats, 8 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on February 27, 1980, 17044 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 17044 days ago, on February 27, 1980.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 96th Congress has not finished by January 3, 1981 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers