a minor sub-clause of a sub-act of an omnibus bill called the National Energy Act that only just squeezed through Congress after significant cajoling and administrative arm twisting. It passed in the House by a single vote (207–206) in the autumn of 1978. What this clause said was simply that the utilities would need to buy, and move to market, electricity produced by any facility with an output of less than 80 MW (about a tenth of what might have been produced by an average nuclear power plant at the time).
