(a) Standards and regulations

The Secretary of Energy, in cooperation with other interested Federal agencies and departments, shall establish and enforce such standards and regulations as may be necessary to assure the safe construction and operation of submarine electric transmission cables and equipment subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Such standards and regulations shall include, but not be limited to, requirements for the use of the safest and best available technology for submarine electric transmission cable shielding, and for the use of automatic switches to shut off electric current in the event of a break in such a cable.

(b) Report to Congress on appropriation and staffing needs

Terms Used In 42 USC 9164

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • construction: means any activities conducted at sea to supervise, inspect, actually build, or perform other functions incidental to the building, repairing, or expanding of an ocean thermal energy conversion facility or plantship or any of its components, including but not limited to, piledriving, emplacement of mooring devices, emplacement of cables and pipelines, and deployment of the cold water pipe, and alterations, modifications, or additions to an ocean thermal energy conversion facility or plantship. See 42 USC 9102
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.

The Secretary of Energy, in cooperation with other interested Federal agencies and departments, is authorized and directed to report to the Congress within 60 days after August 3, 1980, on appropriations and staffing needed to monitor submarine electric transmission cables and equipment subject to the jurisdiction of the United States so as to assure that they meet all applicable standards for construction, operation, and maintenance.