State Severance Taxes Fuel Court Action and Congressional Debate

Abstract

The United States' energy crisis simmered throughout most of election year 1980 largely as a result of Saudi Arabia's maintenance of high production levels in the face of an oil glut on the world market and the IranIraq War. Congress created a Synthetic Fuels Corporation and a solar bank; but it unexpectedly killed the Energy Mobilization Board (EMB) in a House floor vote after the House and Senate had hammered out a compromise bill in conference.Thus, President Jimmy Carter's 1979 energy proposal which had worried students of federalism most went down to defeat while the federal government's role in energy development continued to expand generally. The apparent victory for federalism in the EMB defeat did not relieve the intense pressure on the federal system caused by America's thirst for energy. By the end of 1980, the signs of this pressure were apparent in a variety of contexts. In Congress one major 1980 proposal targets particular oil-burning plants for coal conversion, displacing state utility commission decisions of states primarily in the Northeast.2 The U.S. Department of Energy reported in 1980 that the state utility commissions were not implementing and apparently were resisting implementation of congressionally suggested rate reform measures for electrical power companies. Two federal district courts recently found that the 1954 Atomic Energy Act impliedly preempted what was previously thought to be state responsibility for nuclear plant siting and licensing matters.4 On a number