Emergency Weekend Gasoline Sales Restrictions Message to the Congress Transmitting an Amendment to Standby Conservation Plan No. 1.

To the Congress of the United States:

Pursuant to Sections 201(d) (1) and 552 of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), 42 U.S.C. 6261(d) (1) and 6422, I am hereby transmitting to the Congress for its approval an amendment to Emergency Weekend Gasoline Sales Restrictions (Standby Conservation Plan No. 1) which I transmitted on March 1, 1979.

The purpose of the amendment is to expand the scope of "comparable programs" which a state may develop in order to qualify for an exemption from the Federal plan. The amendment will further encourage states, or political subdivisions thereof, to develop conservation programs which will qualify them for an exemption from the operation of Federal energy conservation contingency plans should those plans ever be put into effect. Such exemptions for "comparable programs" are authorized under Section 202(b) of the EPCA.

The amendment reflects my belief that states should be given the flexibility to meet their share of any energy shortfall prior to the adoption of nationwide measures. The amendment would expand the size of allowable comparable state programs in two ways. First, it would eliminate the requirement that any alternative state plan be a mandatory one. If a state is able to achieve comparable energy savings through a voluntary plan, this should be permissible. Second, the language in the plan requiring that state alternatives deal with "the same subject matter" as the Federal plan would be eliminated and a requirement that savings be of the same fuel would be substituted. This would allow states to propose any alternative approach so long as it achieved comparable savings of the same fuel.

The procedures for approval by Congress of an amendment to a contingency plan are detailed in Section 552 of the EPCA, and require among other things that a resolution of approval 'be passed by each House of Congress within 60 days of submittal of the amendment. Inasmuch as the subject of this amendment has been considered thoroughly by the Congress in its deliberations on the conservation contingency plans, I urge the Congress to give this amendment expedited consideration so that it may 'be approved together with the Emergency Weekend Sales Restrictions plan.

The EPCA does not specify in Section 552 the form which the resolution of approval is to take. As I noted in my submission of the conservation contingency plans on March 1, 1979, it is my view and that of the Attorney General that actions of the Congress purporting to have binding legal effect must be presented to the President for his approval under Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution. Therefore, I strongly recommend that Congressional approval of the amendment be in the form of a joint resolution. If this procedure is followed, the amendment itself, agreed to by the Congress and the President, will not later be subject to possible judicial invalidation on the ground that the President did not approve the resolution.

I urge the prompt and favorable consideration by the Congress of this amendment.

JIMMY CARTER

The White House,

April 5, 1979.