---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 9001"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "9001"
heading: "Congressional findings and declaration of purpose"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/9001"
units:
  - "Chapter 98 — Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Research and Development"
---

# §9001. Congressional findings and declaration of purpose

- (a) The Congress finds that—
  - (1) the supply of nonrenewable fuels in the United States is slowly being depleted;
  - (2) alternative sources of energy must be developed;
  - (3) ocean thermal energy is a renewable energy resource that can make a significant contribution to the energy needs of the United States;
  - (4) the technology base for [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) has improved over the past two years, and has consequently lowered the technical risk involved in constructing moderate-sized pilot plants with an electrical generating capacity of about ten to forty megawatts;
  - (5) while the Federal [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) program has grown in size and scope over the past several years, it is in the national interest to accelerate efforts to commercialize [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) by building pilot and demonstration facilities and to begin planning for the commercial demonstration of [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) technology;
  - (6) a strong and innovative domestic industry committed to the commercialization of [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) must be established, and many competent domestic industrial groups are already involved in [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) research and development activity; and
  - (7) consistent with the findings of the Domestic Policy Review on Solar Energy, [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) energy can potentially contribute at least one-tenth of quad of energy per year by the year 2000.
- (b) Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to accelerate [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) technology development to provide a technical base for meeting the following goals:
  - (1) demonstration by 1986 of at least one hundred megawatts of electrical capacity or [energy product equivalent](/usc/42/9008.md?p=2) from [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) systems;
  - (2) demonstration by 1989 of at least five hundred megawatts of electrical capacity or [energy product equivalent](/usc/42/9008.md?p=2) from [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) systems;
  - (3) achievement in the mid-1990’s, for the gulf coast region of the continental United States and for islands in the United States, its possessions and its territories, an average cost of electricity or [energy product equivalent](/usc/42/9008.md?p=2) produced by installed [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) systems that is competitive with conventional energy sources; and
  - (4) establish as a national goal ten thousand megawatts of electrical capacity or [energy product equivalent](/usc/42/9008.md?p=2) from [ocean thermal energy conversion](/usc/42/9008.md?p=1) systems by the year 1999.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 96–310, § 2, July 17, 1980, 94 Stat. 941.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title

Pub. L. 96–310, § 1, July 17, 1980, 94 Stat. 941, provided: “That this Act [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Research, Development, and Demonstration Act’.”