and developed the first U.S. statewide 9-1-1 emergency telephone service program. Warren's efforts led to Governor Ronald Reagan being persuaded to impose a 0.5% surcharge on telephone bills to fund the program, in spite of having promised not to raise taxes. Reagan signed the authorizing legislation, known as the Warren – 911 – Emergency Assistance Act, into law in 1973. The state system, which cost some $137 million and took more than a decade to implement, was scheduled to be completed in 1985. In 1973, Warren was chairman of a State Assembly subcommittee charged with addressing issues of future energy demand in California. In that role, he developed what he described as a "consuming interest" in the topic of energy. This led him to draft AB 1575, an innovative bill that proposed creating a new state energy agency to make independent forecasts of electricity demand, enforce energy conservation, and encourage the development of alternative forms of energy. A modified version of the legislation passed in both houses of the legislature, but Governor Ronald Reagan vetoed it. Just days after the veto, the start of the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East led to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposing an oil embargo that created the 1973 oil crisis. The oil crisis caused Reagan and his staff to recognize the need to reexamine government energy policies. Warren's bill AB 1575, known as the Warren-Alquist Act, was enacted in May 1974. It established the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, later known as the California Energy Commission. In later years, Warren described the law as the "first successful effort by any [U.S.] governmental jurisdiction to deal with the energy problem in any of its aspects." Following the law's passage, the National Conference of State Legislators established a committee on energy policy and Warren became its first chairman. Warren was one of the principal authors of the Coastal Protection Act of 1976, which established the California Coastal Commission as a permanent body upon the expiration of the four-year authorization for the Coastal Commission created by Proposition 20 in 1972. Reminiscing during oral history interviews in the 1980s, Warren commented on his unexpected status as a successful environmental leader: Among a small circle, I became a minor celebrity and received credit which I did not deserve for things which I did not fully understand. I was considered an environmentalist, but