[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4061 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4061

  To provide for a pilot power plant designed to revitalize depressed 
 communities by providing energy intensive industry with an effective 
     opportunity to dispose of solid wastes and obtain inexpensive 
   electricity and steam, and to provide a pilot role model for the 
  development of a comprehensive national strategic energy intensive 
                          industry initiative.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 16, 1994

Mr. Traficant introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide for a pilot power plant designed to revitalize depressed 
 communities by providing energy intensive industry with an effective 
     opportunity to dispose of solid wastes and obtain inexpensive 
   electricity and steam, and to provide a pilot role model for the 
  development of a comprehensive national strategic energy intensive 
                          industry initiative.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Environmental-Economic 
Recovery Act of 1994''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) plants such as the SEMASS plant in Rochester, 
        Massachusetts, and the Wheelabrator plant in Baltimore, 
        Maryland, provide an effective and efficient means of disposing 
        solid wastes and obtaining inexpensive electrical power and 
        steam; and
            (2) the availability of such plants in a community will 
        attract energy intensive industry to that community, increasing 
        the community's tax base and strengthening its economy.

SEC. 3. GRANT AUTHORITY.

    The Secretary shall make a grant of $10,000,000 to the nonprofit 
IRCA Foundation, a subsidiary of Industrial Resource Consultants of 
America, for the establishment of a facility described in section 4.

SEC. 4. FACILITY.

    The facility to be established as described in section 3--
            (1) shall produce electric power, steam, or both, from 
        solid wastes;
            (2) shall have 2 boilers and be capable of expansion;
            (3) shall be located in a depressed community in the United 
        States;
            (4) shall provide electricity and steam to energy intensive 
        industry customers at no more than 40 percent of the market 
        rate for electricity;
            (5) may provide electricity to public entities or light 
        industry, but not to residential consumers; and
            (6) shall obtain a continuing supply of feedstock 
        sufficient to sustain maximum operational capability through 
        long-term contracts with municipal and other governmental 
        sources.

SEC. 5. REINVESTMENT OF SAVINGS.

    Any energy intensive industry customer obtaining electricity or 
steam from the facility described in section 4 shall invest in 
equipment, physical plant, or increased employment at least 7 percent 
of the savings gained by obtaining such resources from that facility 
compared to the cost of obtaining such resources from other sources.

SEC. 6. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    Within one year after the facility described in section 4 becomes 
fully operational, the Secretary shall transmit to the Congress a 
report recommending whether the Federal Government should make 
additional grants similar to the grant authorized by this Act. Such 
recommendation shall be based on the Secretary's analysis of whether 
the grant made under this Act has resulted in--
            (1) the creation of jobs in the community in which the 
        facility is located due to the relocation of energy intensive 
        industry;
            (2) the effective disposal of solid wastes; and
            (3) the production of electricity and steam more easily and 
        inexpensively.

SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.

    For the purposes of this Act--
            (1) the term ``depressed community'' means a rural or urban 
        community that the Secretary determines is relatively depressed 
        in terms of age of housing, extent of poverty, growth of per 
        capita income, and extent of unemployment, job lag, and surplus 
        labor;
            (2) the term ``energy intensive industry'' means an 
        industry that consumes more than 25,000 BTUs per dollar of 
        value added, as determined by the Secretary;
            (3) the term ``fully operational'' means at least 90 
        percent operational, determined by averaging the percentage of 
        capacity solid waste intake achieved and the percentage of 
        capacity electricity output achieved;
            (4) the term ``market rate'' means the applicable rate for 
        retail bulk power sales made by the electric utility within the 
        service territory concerned; and
            (5) the term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Energy.

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