exercising central responsibility for policy planning, coordination, support, and management of research and development programs respecting all energy sources, including assessing the requirements for research and development in regard to various energy sources in relation to near-term and long-range needs, policy planning in regard to meeting those requirements, undertaking programs for the optimal development of the various forms of energy sources, managing such programs, and disseminating information resulting therefrom;

encouraging and conducting research and development, including demonstration of commercial feasibility and practical applications of the extraction, conversion, storage, transmission, and utilization phases related to the development and use of energy from fossil, nuclear, solar, geothermal, and other energy sources;

engaging in and supporting environmental, biomedical, physical, and safety research related to the development of energy sources and utilization technologies;

taking into account the existence, progress, and results of other public and private research and development activities, including those activities of the Federal Energy Administration relating to the development of energy resources using currently available technology in promoting increased utilization of energy resources, relevant to the Administration’s mission in formulating its own research and development programs;

participating in and supporting cooperative research and development projects which may involve contributions by public or private persons or agencies, of financial or other resources to the performance of the work;

developing, collecting, distributing, and making available for distribution, scientific and technical information concerning the manufacture or development of energy and its efficient extraction, conversion, transmission, and utilization;

creating and encouraging the development of general information to the public on all energy conservation technologies and energy sources as they become available for general use, and the Administrator, in conjunction with the Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration shall, to the extent practicable, disseminate such information through the use of mass communications;

encouraging and conducting research and development in energy conservation, which shall be directed toward the goals of reducing total energy consumption to the maximum extent practicable, and toward maximum possible improvement in the efficiency of energy use. Development of new and improved conservation measures shall be conducted with the goal of the most expeditious possible application of these measures;

encouraging and participating in international cooperation in energy and related environmental research and development;

helping to assure an adequate supply of manpower for the accomplishment of energy research and development programs, by sponsoring and assisting in education and training activities in institutions of higher education, vocational schools, and other institutions, and by assuring the collection, analysis, and dissemination of necessary manpower supply and demand data;

encouraging and conducting research and development in clean and renewable energy sources.