Residential Conservation Service

Testimony was given on whether the entire Residential Conservation Service Program expired on January 1, 1985, as the Department of Energy asserts, or only the program announcement requirement that utilities inform their customers of the program's existence expired on that date, and the remainder of the program is still legally in effect. GAO found that the National Energy Conservation Policy Act provided that the program announcement duties were to terminate on January 1, 1985, but it contained no termination date for other aspects of the program. Further, a statute is in effect for the indefinite future of the program until subsequent legislative action repeals or modifies it. GAO found no necessary connection between the expiration of the tax credit and the expiration of the program. In addition, GAO found that the termination dates of the program and the performance standards for new residential buildings had no relationship to each other. Therefore, in the absence of a program completion date, requests for installations under the program could continue indefinitely.