Coalcon Co.

This document describes: (1) an opinion on whether the Coalcon plant and the products thereof can be disposed of by Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) without regard to the requirements of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended, 40 U.S.C. 471, et seq., (The Federal Property Act); and (2) our review of a reprogramming request made on February 19 by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA). ERDA proposes to transfer $20 million of operating expense funds from the Coal Direct Combustion and Coal Demonstration Plant programs ($18 million and $2 million respectively) to the Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) program. These three programs are part of ERDA's "Fossil Energy Development" activity. The reprogramming action is intended to provide funds for the design and construction of a "Component Development and Integration Facility" (CDIF), an intermediate-scale facility for the developmental testing of MHD components and subsystems. The CDIF, conceived as a Government-owned and contractor-operated facility with an estimated life (including follow-on research programs) of 15-20 years, will be a complex of several buildings--main test building, operations building, office building, warehouse, and various supply buildings, To provide a site for the CDIF, ERDA plans to acquire three parcels of land, totaling 93 acres in the Industrial Park area of Butte, Montana, The questions to be considered may be summarized as follows: (1) Does ERDA's current (fiscal year 1976) authorization legislation limit the use of fossil energy operating expense funds insofar as land acquisition in concerned? (2) May operating expense funds reprogrammed to the MHD program for the CDIF be used acquisition purposes? (3) May ERDA use the unobligated balance of funds appropriated for MHD in fiscal year 1975 to acquire land for the CDIF? (4) In addition, Congress asked GAO to "review and comment on the adequacy of the arrangements proposed by ERDA for acquisition of the three parcels, and on the value and cost of these parcels." (5) Finally, Congress asked whether ERDA has prepared an Environmental Impact Statement on the CDIF construction project, and if not, whether it plans to do so.