of interest to the testimony of the witnesses just before me. It was pointed out that the development of such a system will be a very major undertaking and no one is proposing to invest the $40 to $60 billion, whatever be required, at this point in time, if I understood the discussion. But it is true that the kinds of programs that it was being compared with, such as the Apollo program, were ones in which the Nation made a major commitment before the details began to be undertaken. And so it seems to me that there will be a critical issue here as to how much the Nation is committed to carrying out a program which is twice, or at least the order of magnitude of the total lunar program. And I think this is something that hearings like this are very helpful for, because it brings that issue before the public. Senator Ford. Dr. Teem, as I understand it now—and, of course, as the man said, I am shooting from the seat of my pants—there will be no money for this particular area in ERDA's budget request to the Congress, or in the President's request of Congress—and we are not talking about huge sums of money inothe initial stages. Will there be some money there to continue the efforts that are being made so we might get into the position of making a judgment whether we should proceed or not? Dr. Teem. We will certainly look at that. Senator Ford. But you are not saying that there is any money at all—just a pittance compared to your budget. Dr. Teem. In the budget that has just been presented to the Congress, there is none—all of the funds are identified against how they would be planned to be used. Obviously there is some flexibility in any agency to explore some new concepts—and we will be looking at it in that context, within the context of our overall priorities in solar electric applications. Senator Ford. You state in your prepared remarks, and I quote, if I may, Doctor: If this use of space can effectively and economically contribute to the solutions of energy problems in an environmentally acceptable way, it should become a part of the national energy R. & D. program. Now, recognizing the uncertainties inherent in economic projections, Dr. Greenblat, of ECON, as you probably heard this morning, has stated that the critical decisionmaking test is—and I think this is correct-—as long as a satellite system may be cost-effective under realistic future conditions, then a limited development program should proceed. Would ERDA agree that this is the best test to apply here—or what test will you apply, what test will you use? Dr. Teem. I tried in my testimony, Mr. Chairman, to identify the type of criteria that ERDA has identified in its plan for national energy research, development, and demonstration program that was presented to the Congress last June-July. And we do look at the types of analysis, types of criteria, that I discussed there in my testimony, including the identification of what the state of the knowledge is, what the types of institutional as well as technological barriers there are on a particular concept, and what the benefit will be from that.
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