RAIN APRIL 1978 VOLUME IV, NO.6 ONE DOLLAR " t: SUBURBAN RENEWAL p.6 Z u '" ·u DOE: DEPARTMENT OF SOLAR EVASION p.12 SOLAR JOBS, NO JOBS p. 8, 20 ~
Page 2 RAIN April1978 HEALTH Tsubo: Vital Points for Oriental Therapy, Katsusuke Serizawa, 1976, from: Japan Publications Trading Co. 200 Clearbrook Road Elmsford, NY 10523 This book is the most usable Englishlanguage presen tation of Oriental therapy I've seen, and an excellent tool for self-reliant, wholistic health care. Dr. Serizawa's text includes a basic discussion of body energy systems, the location of tsubo (acupoints) along energy meridians, and manual treatment techniques to use on tsubo, focusing on shiatsu (acupressure massage). The balance of the book is an extensive catalogue of fairly common sicknesses and body/mind ailments, along with exacting instructions for their home treatment with tsubo therapy. The entire book is exceptionally clear and extensively illustrated with both male and female anatomies. Tsubo includes a small section on children's ailments as well as a separate chart for each of the 14 energy meridians. Augmented by a preventative health regimen, this book can be an invaluable aid in transcending the pills and bills endemic to current American health care. (Thanks to Mikihasa Shima) -SA r8. BL·23 (~'* Shen-vu) This is one of several acupoints used to treat common earache. JC~t~~~~~u~~~~ \ ,,.;: .y. I, ~: ofEconomics, by Hazel Henderson, 1978, $4.95 from: Berkley Windhover Books Berkley Publishing Company 200 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10016 Hazel Henderson has been an active voice on the cutting edge of the environmental movement for some time now, working to bring new social concerns to bear on the political process, pioneering specialized public interest organizations where none existed before, and expanding the horizons of high-level bureaucrats and decisionmakers. Creating Alternative Futures is a collection of articles, speeches and letters documenting her insights into the unfolding changes in our values and political consciousness. From her vantage point we can envision both the \ \ AGRICULTURE Maine Farm Management and Technology Idea Papers, contact: Donald Vail Dept. of Economics Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME 04011 The small farm folks in Maine have a nice thing going between the academics and people doing it that could well be used elsewhere. This is a series of "idea papers" on the development of farmers' markets, negotiations between the food cooperatives and small farmers on direct marketing, and problems and prospects of small farmers from a friendly observer at the edge of the fray. He puts down observations and suggestions saying, "Well, we've tried this for a while; let's really see if it is working." -TB APPROPRIATE RAIN insoluble dilemmas facing industrial culture, and the hopeful signs of the emerging alternative. Hazel's expansive vista is her own best example of a changing worldview, cutting across the old academic divisions and circumventing linear thinking. Nowhere is this as well-honed as in her persistent forays into the bankruptcy of conventional economics and the intellectual tunnelvision that produces it. And what will replace this reigning sophistry? Hopefully an information system wherein every bit contains the program of the whole-where people incorporate into their Individual consciousnesses an understanding of the whole system and the extended chains of causality flowing from their actions. Says Hazel: the hologram is the key metaphor of our time. -SA Canada as a Conserver Society, 1977, $2.70 from: Science Council of Canada 150 Kent Street, 7th Floor Ottawa, Onto KIP 5P4 CANADA The Science Council of Canada seems to be taking the Conserver Society more and more seriously. This report lays out the principle policy implications of a Conserver Society, immediate and longer range actions to take and specific applications to energy areas. Focus mostly is on continuing to do what we are doing, but more energy and material efficiently. Many provocative suggestions. - TB Small Scale Industries, Rural Develop· ment Network Bulletin No.7, Sept. 1977, free while copies available from: Overseas Liaison Committee American Council on Education 11 Dupont Circle Washington, DC 20036 A good listing of international a. t. centers and bibliography focussed on third world applications of a. t. There is so much AID and CIA dollars and games in international "development" that we generally steer clear of it, but if you're interested in developmen ts ou tside the U.S., this is a good listing. -TB
~I SlJeel)(wi(lt~r 77) ~~~ "N Quarry Association Newsletter, $lIyr. from: Centre for Alternative Technology Machynlleth, Powys, Wales, Great Britain Aurumn 1977 Newsletter contains updates on a.ctivities at the busy cemer in Wales. More than 55,000 visitors to this fairly remore center to date. Whew! Bob Todd and others have prepared an "Alternate Energy Strategy for the United Kingdom, based on zero energy growth, for the Windscale Enquiry. Energy Education Packets are available for 4.50 pounds. From their report, they seem to have one of the most active and varied demonstration centers yet. -TB SOLAR Solar '78 Northwest, the 2nd annual Pacific Northwest solar energy conference, July 14-16, 1978, Portland Sheraton, $30 per pers'on for 3 days, to receive a conference mailer, write: Mary Lawrence, coordinator SOLAR '78 NORTHWEST Conference 620 S.W. 5th, Rm. 610 Portland, OR 97204 Supported by grants from DOE, Oregon DOE and other state energy offices, in cooperation with the city of Portland and the Portland chapter, American Institute of Architects, this year's event again has a 1200-person attendance limit, so pre-register early if you are interested in regional solar-wind-biomass affairs. Invited technical paper abstracts are due by April 1, 1978, and completed papers arc due July 1, 1978, for pre-conference printing of proceedings. It'll be even better than last year's! See you there. - LJ Pacific Northwest Solar Energy Association (PNWSEA) balloting for seven board members went as follows: John Reynolds (54 voteselectcd to 2-year term ending July 1979), Doug Boleyn (47, 2 yr.), Lee Johnson (47, 2 yr.), Ken Smith (46, 2 yr.), Jill Goodnight (44,1 yr. ending RAIN's office is at 2270 N.W. Irving, Portland, OR 97210. Ph: (503) 227-5 110. RAIN Tom Bender Joan Meitl Linda Sawaya STAFF: Lane deMoll Lee Johnson Steven Ames Typesetting: Irish Setter Printini: Times Litho July '78), Kirk Drumheller (38, 1 yr. ) and Anton Eder (34, 1 yr.). Others receiving votes but not elected were: Leland Corey (26). Joe Garlitz. (25), Skip Stoppiello (1I!), Greg Higgins (11), Howard Reichmuth 0 ), and 1 each for Steve Baker, Jeff Barnes, David Baylon, Bob Murray, Laird Perry, and Davis Straub. The first official PNWSEA board meeting is April 1, 1: 3 0 p.m., at Doug Boleyn's solar. Agenda include selection of officers, by-laws for recognition by ISES-AS and sub-chapter bylaws. RAIN and John Reynolds will continue to keep you informed about PNWSEA activities_ - LJ Solar Energy for Pacific Northwest Residential Heating, by DOE and EPA, Region X, free from: Public Affairs Office U.S. Department of Energy 915 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA 98174 The study provides a more comprehensive erigineering and economic analysis for a greater variety of sites in the Northwest than has been available up to now. Findings of the study can serve as a valuable tool for those who may wish to install solar equipment now, and for decision-makers who will be developing and implementing solar energy poLicy. It is also useful as a resource document on the technical, legal. environApril 1978 RAIN Page 3 mental and economic issues related to the development of solar energy for residential heating and cooling in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. - LJ The 1978 SUN Catalog, $2 from: Solar Usage Now Box 306 Bascom, OH 44809 An excellent at-glance view of the progress solar energy has made over the last ft w years- 200 pages of availableby-mail solar hardware. Everything from waste-oil heaters to electric hiyclcs to eight kinds of d-i-y storm windows, complete solar water heater systems. kits, parts and even solar curriculum materials for schools. -TB No Heat, No Rent: An Urban Solar and Energy Conservation Manual, free from: Energy Task Force 156 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10010 A.T. anu pOlirical consciousness came together at 519 E. 11th Street's "SWCaL equity" project on Manhattan's lo\ver east side, where a cooperativc, self-help endeavor renabilitated an ahandoned tenement building with the use of energy conservation techniques and solar hot water heating. No Heat, No Relit [s a simplified technical manual generated by that project that is intended to help similar urban efforts make preliminary assessmentS as to the design and construction of such systems. With its clear, well-diagrammed discussions, No Heat, No Rent is a good primer in some of the basic techniques of urban energy selfreliance. The report's conclusions as to the cost-effectiveness of the solar unit were tentative pending more information, but later analyses have it that fuel cOSts at 519 have been cut dramatically. - SA
Page 4 RAiN April 1978 NCAT bas prublems. We've been quiet as lung as possible, to give it space to get on its feet (Ind time to sort out its problems inlernally. That hasn't happened to date, and tbe problems caused to grantees and other urganizations and individuals outside NCA l' make it important tbat we all sbare our perspectives 0 11 what has bappened and what can be done to improve the situation. The following perspectives are my own - based on my participation on tbe planning committee fo~ NCA T and co1ltilluing discussion with board members. staff and othet a.t. groups. There are certainly other viewpoints. If you have helpful insights to add to the discussion. send us feedback. - TB mrnffiTI where ·are you al? I[ 'S been almost three years now since the planning committee for the National Center for Appropriate Technology first met-flown in at a co [ of $20,000 to a $35 /day hot springs resort in Montana, complete with astro-turf surrounding the artificially cooled, chlorinated hot springs swimming pool and golf course surrounded with condominium lots (care to take a tour?). 0 meals for less than $6. We were brought there to talk abour simple living. And to explore the inherent contradictions of the world's largest government propo ing to develop technology for 10caUy self-reliant living. A Center for Decentralized Technology. Small renewable energy systems for poor people encouraged through a Montana Energy and Magnetohydrodynamits Re earch and Development Institute (MERDI), whose board members represented such compatible bedfellows as Edward Teller, Anaconda Copper. Montana Power Company, banks and technical universities. Those were bad omens and difficult conditions through which to try to assist local technologies, but a lot of good energy by a lot of good people has also gone into getting NCAT going. It seems time now to try to evaluate what has happened with NCAT in these three years, particularly as all reports indicate that things aren't going too well there now. People and groups -awarded grants have been experiencing interminable delays in getting their money. As of February, many of the regional new letter grantees still hadn' t seen contracts or money more than six months after they had been notified and had started work. One group given a grant to develop a solar-powered irrigation pump refused the grant when it cventuaUy arrived- they had gone ahead without the long-promised money and the project was already finished. The Trust for Public Land in San Francisco had to pay for a project with their own money when NCAT funds never came. People and Energy experienced similar problems with two NCAT grants. Paperwork and accounting demands seem excessivewhether caused by CSA, NCAT or a single accounting clerk. Ecotope Group, with a $300,000 grant from the Department of Energy and an $8,000 grant from NCAT found the paperwork required by NCAT to be several times greater than their larger grant. The NCAT staff itself is snowed under evaluating grant proposals and doing paperwork on approved grants- yet other similar government grant programs have avoided such problems. We have personally had extremely hard times getting information from NeAT- repeated requests failed to obtain even a list of NCAT extension workers and regional newsletters. The list we printed in RAIN we had to get from Craig Decker. a Washington, D.C. a.t. person who came by the Rainhouse after si tting in on an NCAT board meeting. There is always start-up confusion in any organization, and it's excusable if our name won't stick onto their computer mailing list. But everyone we talk to seems to have similar problems. People continually write to us expressing frustration at not getting any response to letters, phone calls, grant proposals, etc. There doesn't seem to be any single cause for all the prob lems. The Community Services Administration (formerly the
April 1978 RAIN Page 5 Office of Equal Opportunity) is responsible for channeling NCAT's 53 million to Butte, and they make things difficult by stringing the funding along month by month without ap· proving the current year's budget. Ironically, the concurrent development of the successful DOE Small Grants Program, which does do part of what NCAT was set up to do, shows that a workable simple operation is possible. A board of directors that won't give the staff space or authority to do its work is a major problem. The most trivial day-to-day decisions apparently require board approval, and board o.k. on all but the smallest grants is necessary. A great deal of the staff's time is taken up preparing reports for the board rather than doing what they're supposed to do. A similar power/control problem seems to conttnue on up into CSA. The newsletter grants apparently vanished for several months on the desk of Dick Saul, the CSA staff person in charge of the NCAT project- lost, sat on or forgotten while awaiting his approval. The size and rapid growth is.probably another cause of difficulties. 50(?) people are now on NCAT's payroll. which ironically seems both too largc and too small for its taSk. Il appears too small bccause its job isn'l getting done well, yet it's too large for the collective decision-making that many of rhe staff people bave invested time and energy to set up. It is also too large to be managed with just a good vision of what to do, and finding a direclor with both the right vision and management skills is a pretty hopeless task. The planning committee recommended a staff of five to seven people. Six people run DOE's comparably scaled small grants pilot program, and fourteen people are planned for DOE's whole Office of Small Scale Technology, which will remarkably parallel NCAT's activities. We would guess that fifteen people could operate NCAT's grant-making and information dissemination functions-based on staff needs for similar activities elsewhere. Staff competency appears to be another difficul [y. Entangling bureaucratic regulations, Butte's remoteness, and hassles by the board exist, but don't account for people on the staff who are too frequently unaware of the work that has been done in their field or unable to check any of the b~ic references in the field that would bring ..hem at least halfway up to date. NCAT contracted with a person to explore thc potential of homemade windmills wilh apparently no realization of earlier efforts by Windworks, Helion, New Alchemy and many others and why they had been abandoned. The two technical publications we've seen prepared by NCAT (on heating with wood and furnace efficiency) are ge!1erally worth· less for this very reason . Both NCAT staff members and board members point the finger at inadequate management by the director as a major problem. We know too little of the day-to-day operatIons of the organization to evaluate that situation, but we do know that it is easy to make a scapegoat of someone caught in the middle of an impossible situation. There is probably a mis match between the director's skills and the kind of organiza tion that has emerged after these three years, but that can't be the whole problem. Another dimension of NCAT's problems is its rcIation with CSA and the Community Action network. Although originally proposed as an indcpendent institute, restriclions on its initial funding from CSA forced it to totally serve the CAP network. Tbe board today is dominated by the CSA world. Local CAP ageneies get priority on grants, and other groups must get a "sign-off" from the local CAP agency on their proposalsall guaranteed to scare away more viable independent proposals. Those biases in part explain the failure by NCAT to attracl any other funding which could give it independence and help it gain a more equitable representation of the various constituencies involved in a.t. aT0und the nation. What has resulted is what I feared while on the planning committee. It's easy to see NCAT as merely a covert CSA structure set up to channel other government funds into CSA programs. That is a far cry from a real "national center." This is not necessarily to criticize NCAT for trying to get appropriate technologies into anti-poverty programs. As we see it, the problem is that they are not doing this well because of their tendency to hire/contract with less than thc best expertise available and thc roadblocks they have set up against attracling that expertise. The criticism also stems from the fact that they bill themselves as providing networking for the a.t. world and local community development- a function that we have not seen well carried out to date. Adding to all these operational problems is an underlying spirit of di.strust and divisiveness-on the board, between board and staff, and bctween the whole operation and its various constituencies on the outside. This is in part a legacy of CSA and MERDI representatives' failure to be honest with the planning committee about what under-the-table agreements they had made. There existed an implicit agreement to locate NCAT in Butte and to pump a lot of money into its minedout economy regardless of whether that would help or hloder an effective operation. And there was agreemc:nt to put NeAT under MERDI's administration and contTol. When the planning committee was brought together these agreements and assumptions were not revealed and were dragged out only after repeated dcnials. The mistake that those organizers made was to pull together a strong and articulate planning committee that was not willing to blithcJy go along with these "business as usual" policies of filling institutional coffers with our tax money instead of accomplishing the real work nceding to be done. Many of the group, originally operating under the assurancc that the situation was wide open, fought long and hard to make it a truc a.t. center that would begin to deal with the problems of gettlog new technologies to poor people. MERDI still ended up with a huge hunk of the money for "technical support" money that was originally LO go as small grants to local projects. What public good has resulted from all that money? The distrust and acrimony created by this situation still underlies relationships today. None of these problems is insoluble. NCAT has to decide what it is and wants to be, to be honest with the rest of the world and communicate with it, and focus on doing well whatever it decides to do. It ain't easy, but it is possible. It seems that the greatest loss overall has been the incredible amount of good energy that people all over the country have put into getting NCAT going and making it a success-and the effort of some of the involved governmental bureaucrats to ignore rather than usc that energy, to set up an organization to serve their own ends rather than the dearly expressed needs and opportunities that have been laid out for them. We need to work together, and almost everyone from CAP directors to a.t. loventors to state agencies to Montana dirt farmers have reached out to try. But it won't work when a few people are playing power politics and preventing us all from coming together on an equal and cooperative footing. CSA and the board need to let go of NCAT. It needs to be simplified so that people can make conract and cooperate with it, and it with them without people's worst fears being realized, as they have been to date. Or it won't work. - Tom Bender
The following is a list ofposters depicting altem ative visions of mau and community. If we missed any good ones, let me know. - JM Farallones Poster, 754 from: Integral Urban House 1516 Fifth St. Berkeley, CA 94710 A small poster which graphically illustrate relation hips between energy, food, man and waste. Probe Pin-up Poster, $2 from: PROBE 43 Queen's Park, Crescent East Toronto M5S 2C3 CANADA A lot of very readable information telling who, why and how-t on everything from recycling to road salt in Canada. Contains only Canadian resources, hut it is an excellent model. Whole Life Systems Household, $1 cash from: OAT State of California 1530 10th St. Sacramento, CA 95814 Done by Gordon Ashb , California OAT. A lovely line drawing of an integrated system visualizing the effects of sun, wind, water and soil. VIEWS DOWN THE ROAD The Ark, $3 from: The New Alchemy Institute P.O. Box 432 Woods Hole, MA 02543 This poster is a photograph of the Ark, a food-raising bio helter fusing alar architecture, windmill technology, fish culture and agri ultura! systems. More detailed line drawings are hown on back. Urban Eeotopia, by Diane Schatz, $3 from: RAIN 2270 N.W. Irving Portland, OR 97210 A reprint of the " Visions of Ecotopia" line drawing that appeared in the April '76 poster i ue. Great for coloring. Suburban Eeotopia, by Diane Schatz, $3 from: RAIN 2270 N.W. Irving Portland, OR 97210 Companion to our first ecotopia poster. This was also done by Diane Schatz and depicts a section of suburbia that has been reconverted to an energyefficient community. AERO Posters, $2.50 each from: AERO 435 Stapleton Bldg. Billings, MT 59101 Loren Schultz is creating five posters to raise funds for AERO. They are available in four colors: white. cream sandstone and gold. The first is a rural scene complete with windmill, solar greenhouse and helping hands. Compendium Community Action Poster, $1.50 from: Compendium Bookshop 240 Camden High Street London, England NW 1 A commu nity scene which is a good refle tion of what is happening in our cities of the world. Also available from Compendium is the G iff (Iarper Series f illustrations for the book " Radical Technology" reproduced as a series of posters: autonomous terrace, collectivized garden ', household workshop, community workshop, community media centre, autonomous housing estate, and patriarchal street scene. The series is a ailable fur $2.
Suburban Renewal As the fuels that spawned our far-flung, energy profligate suburbia get more ex.pensive, fears of the cost of replacing that multi-billion dollar investment begin to worm their way into our consciousness. We sat down a couple of years ago to brainstorm what a conversion of suburbs to a saner, more conserving way of life would involve. The news was good. It's easier to get simpler than to get wasteful! The space-grabbing demands of the automobile required whole new urban and regional infrastructures. Adapting to its demise requires only ingenuity and self-interest, which we've never b'een short on. We got our friend Diane Schatz tc) draw up some of the possibilities: * We wring our hands too much over prime agricultural land lost to suburbia. Fritz Schumacher reminded us some time ago that intensive gardening and Tender Loving Care (TLC) in suburban gardens has been shown in England actually to increase food uutput per acre. The Farallones Integral Urban House in Berkeley and other projects across the country have also shown a very substantial part of a household's food needs can be met with ve ry little space ur labor. Our main concern should be to avoid puisoning the ground so heavily with "lawn care" products as to make future food production impossible. Fruit and nur-bearing trees call provide both food and natural air-conditioning in the summer. * Water, power, streets, sewers, phone and other utilities are already in place in suburbia. Reduction of usc through conservation measures means that many mure families can be served by the same utility network. Some possibilities: -Conversion of large suburban homes to duplexes or apartments. Many have multiple baths, would convert easily and would provide a better retirement investment than pensions. -Street houses and backyard apartments. Closure of unnecessary streets can provide opportunity to build additional housing or neighborhood gardens in their place. • This doubling of the usc of existing housing, utility networks and roads makes possible increasing rhe density of desired areas to levels where public transit becomes more economical. It also makes neighborhood shopping more feasible b}' increasing the number of people within walking or bicycling J i5tance of a shop. * Home businesses are a.lready becoming more common, in spite of prohibitive wning regulations. Conversion of garages to businesses, home workshops to furniture making and repair, and spare bedrooms to home offices is likely to occur more and more frequently as people discover working patterns that eliminate commuting, that can be .tarted themselves with minimum capital, and that provide rewarding and secure work. Rcnting guest rooms provides a low"'cost alternative to freeway motels. * N1!ighborhood or community-sized renewable cnergy systems can augment individual conservation and solar systems at less cost than conventional power plants. Solar collectors on the roof of shared parking, laundry, or shop sp1lce, connected to large heat storage tanks serving a whole block, are already coming off the drawing boards, and community wind-electric systems a.re now operational. It looks like what already ex.ists in suburbia can be used much more intensely, creatively and cftectively. What needs to change is our habits and our panerns- the physical environment can be adapted quite readily. T B d - om en er April 1978 RAIN Page 7 New Directions in State and Local Tax Reform, 1977, price not listed, available from: Conference on State and Local Public Policy 1901 Q Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20009 Tax reform always seems to be replacing one set of loopholes with another and more taxes for [ewer. So it was a pleasant relief to see this survey of the vast number of good things happening. Some samples: * California's 1976 Forest Taxation Reform Act chat put forestry land in a permanent zone and converted timber from a property tax to a yield tax, removing the incentive for premature harvest of tree.s. * Systems Development Charges assessed oy some Oregon cities on development of new properties to pay for not only the streets, sewers and water lines directly serving the properties, but the cOSt of increased capacity in the rest of of the systems to provide water, treat sewage and handle increased traffic. Good move for further internalizing of high development cosTS that existing taxpayers are usually stuck with. * Since 1955, the New York Telephone Co. has mailed refund checks for wrong numbers reached on pay phones instead of returning the money to the caller in the pholle booth. Few of the 10rt chccks are ever cashed. The Phone Company knows it, and pockets the money. N.Y. Attorney General Lewis Lefkowitz has forced tlw company to turn over to the state $246,000, representing uncashed refund checks, and to pay $373,000 more by 1980 if the problem persists. * Banks in many states have quietly pocketed millions of dollars abandoned by depositors who h.'lYe died or moved leaving checking accounts or safe deposit boxes in the banks. 25 states how require such money to revert to public revenue if no heir can be found. Peanuts? $7 million per year in New York alone, $900,000 per year in Maryland and probably $1 million in D.C. * Mississippi and Colorado collect tax or license fees on chain stores based on number of stores owned in the entire chain. Mississippi cbarges up to $300 in extra taxes per sture in Mississippi for large chains. There are ways to recoup some of the money extracted from a state by thc chain stores! * The rationale and effects of including in tangible personal property (stocks, bonds and savings) in general property taxes are laid out. Such changes would lower pro perty taxes an average of 13 percent and would lessen tax avoidance by the wealthy. Almost 400 pages of encouraging developments from almost eve.ry nook and cranny of the country. - TB
Pagc 8 RAIN April 1978 CAN THE SUN BE ALL THINGS TO ALL CALIFORNIANS? Jobs from the Sun: Employment Development in the California Solar Industry, 120 pp., Feb. 1978, $5.00 from: California Public Policy Center (Attn: Solar Jobs) 304 S. Broadway, #224 Los Angeles, CA 90013 SolarCal: A Proposal for a Public Solar Energy Authority, 5 pp. reprint, Congressional Record, Nov. 15, 1977, free from: California Public Policy Center (address same as above) Can the un be all things to all people, providing renewable energy, jobs and economic development in a decentralized, socially equjtable and environmentally benign fashion? In California, this hefty question is quickly losing its rhet rical quality and becoming a matter of real political significance, as the stale edges closer to the actual possibility of "solarizing" itself by 1990. At stake is the opporrunity to begin easing the California economy away from the use of inflationary, jobeliminating, non-renewable energy sources for space and water heating, inducing the first step towards a new era of more appropriate development. This is ue has been brought to a head by the SolarCal propo ai, initiated by the Campaign for Economic Democracy and developed in the past year by the California Public Policy Center. olarCal, if passed by the state'~ legislature, would e tablish a public corporation with $500 million in funds to provide the economic framework for the development of a statewide solar industry, lending front monies to legitimate solar entrepreneurs, and to householders wishing to convert to solar heating. l If SolarCal were to pa s with all its provisions intact, it could forge a bond between the public and private sectors in which large capital pools aggregated at the state level flow out ro the localities for solar conversion, with the potential for a broad-based, decentralized economic impact providing jobs und rencwabk energy. In addition, it is the specifics of the proposal that would make this new stare authority an integrative, reform·oriented public body. These include: • the representation of diverse interest groups on its board, ex luding the employees of energy monopolies and utilities_ • the direction of its home loans to low and middle clas eon umers • a preference for California-based solar firms meeting Strict criteria concerning size, unionization, affirmative action, hiring the unemployed and independence from large corporations. While it is certain that California's large utilities and sup pliers of natural gas and their corporate allies are not pleased with this prospect, a balance of the state's diverse group and interests could find the logic behind SolarCal compelling enough to abandon more shady utility energy bargains and make haste for the sunny side of the treet. More substantive evidence in favor of the SolarCal propo aI was recently provided by the California Public Policy Center with the release of itS new study jobs from the Sun, a detailed analy i~ attempting to assess the real potential for the development of solar energy in the state between now and 1990, and specifically to calculate the number of jobs that would be generated in meeting this potential, as well as the overall impact on the Calif mia e nomy. Already, JFTS reports, the conventional cost-effectiveness of solar space and water heating is competitive with electric resistance heating, as well as with new supplies of natural gas. With escalating c sts locked into such non-renewable sources, and the declining costs of solar likely to continue, this aJvantage will become pronounced in the next decade. Bur beyond conventional comparisons, there are the additional socio-economic advantages of the solar option, as measurable ill its non-inflationary economic stimulation, environmental enhancement and the creation of new jobs. j FTS found that a solar industry meeting feasible California space and watcr heating needs 2 between 1981 and 1990 could generate over 376,000 jobs per year for the length of the decade, wiTh 36 percent directly related to solar employment and 64 percent to indirect/induced employment. Of the direct solar jobs, 21 percent would be in manufacturing and 57 percent in in tallation, which are two areas of greatest structural weakness in the state's economy.3 Compared to highly explosive liquified natural gas (LNG), one of the few real, albeit dangerous. options for space and water heating in California, a new solar industry is expected to produce 62 times as many jobs for the equivalent amount of heat energy due to it labor-intcnsity.4 In addition, these jobs would require lower kills level and would be dispersed acro s the state. The solar option would also displace hetween 26 and 35 percent of the natural gas currently used in the rate. [n toto, such a development would boost California's personal income by $4.2 billion and its Gross State Product by $5.1 billion per annum, while saving $1.9 billion in taxes and avoiding $1.02 billion in exported capital per annum. j obs from tbe Sun is a well-executed piece of advocacy research treating an unquestionably desirable alternative as end·goal, and then subjecting it to a rigorous statistical
analysis in order to flush out the numbers needed to convince skeptical labor groups, penny-wise consumers and politicians. The methodologies it employs are deliberately conservative. The results give new credence to the answers that have long made intuitive good sense. Clearly, job-creation is only one kind of measure of sensible productivity, others being net energy gain, perceived ecological integrity, the communal self-sufficiency of small units, and so on. (See page 20) But at this point, the is.~ue of jobs is 'be argument in the politics of energy, and since the interests of more jobs and safe, renewable energy are so eminently cumpatible, J(,bs from the Sun serves us well, indeed. On the other hand, there is implicit in JFTS a contradiction between the prospect of a new, high-growth industry for California (mentioned several times) and the socially optimum goal of a steady-state economy (never mentioned). How an economic boom based on the massive expansion of appropriate technologies and a conserver society ultimately Jive with each other is left unexplored. Instead, JFT.S can't help but observe that a new solar industry would even provide the opportunity for California to export its newly developed technologies elsewhere- in exchange for someone else's capital. This may be a bit of a ploy, but it is distinctly uncomfortable. What we face April 1978 RAIN Pa~e 9 change that we know must come. It is a.lso a highly integrative effort in that it openly seeks to span some very substantiaJ ideological gaps, such as: • small-scale production v. unionized labor • urban unemployed left v. small-town/individualist right • a large new state authority with money v. decentralized economic development The issue of jobs is already cutting through some of these old divisions; others are still relatively new territory which are JUSt being explored. Yet, however difficulr, it is high time that such differences are squarely addressed, because it is apparent that for too long a host of self-defeating attitudes, as well as the divide and conquer tactics pandered by corporate monopolies, have kept all Americans from seeing how much they really have in common with each other. Nothing has displayed OliT mutual best interests so clearly as the wb()le issue of energy development in the '70s and '80s. Tbere is greater potential now for linking up together over mattcrs of COmmon concern than in a long, long time. - Steven Ames is not simply the challenge of getting over another economic hump and then going back to business as usual. Our economies are going through a much more complex period of transition in which new energy is only one factor in a melange of resource scarcities and new social paradigm.s. Profound changes in our values and politics are in order, and boom-psychology is not among them. It can only let us down. It should also be noted that JFTS does not analyze the Job-producing, energy-conserving possibilities of other appropriate energy technologies such as wind generation, photovoltaics, biomass conversion and passive solar design. This is understandable due to its focus on space :ll1d water heating and the purpose of the SolarCal proposal itself. But it can also leave the solutions to the coming period of energy transition looki ng slightly one-dimensional. In reality, a multiplicity of energy demands and resources will require a multiplicity of responses in a multiplicity of situations. This is the ecologic and beauty of the decentralized approach. Pegging too much hope on one potential,solution as a cure-all would be a very rigid response to a complicated challenge demanding great flexibil ity. As for SolarCal, its establishment of a new state authority is good enough cause for worry, like other governmental and quasi-governmental efforts that try to respond progressively to problems. (See page 4). All of SolarCal's potential constituencies have been burned by big bureaucracies. whether they are middle-elass homeowners, the unemployed or small businesses. Beyond this is the genuine and familiar fear that building an institutional framework within which to promote small-scale technologies may preclude the very goals of increasing community self-reliance and the decentralization of political power we hold so dearly. A major economic transition, however, is a tough order to fill, and we need to search out tbe momentum that gets us going down the right path. The Jobs frum the Sun/SolarCal endeavor is a well-coordinated effort that has honed in on an impressive first-plank strategy for encouraging the broader social and economic SOLARCAI~ UPDATE As RAIN goes to press, we have learned of new changes in the status of the SolarCal proposal, now before the California legislature. Because of opposition in the legislature to the prospect of forming a new state agency and coming up with additional funding, SolarCal has been divided into 12 separate bills stressing most of the important concepts, including loans to consumers and small businesses and solar planning. This certainly raises the possibility that the integrative nature of the original proposaJ is endangered, especially if important components of the legislative package are shafted. The Campaign for Economic Democracy (CEO), main political promoter of SolarCal, will continue to work for the passage of the biUs, as well as engaging in two other important strategies: 1) pushing the state's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to keep the utilities out of the new solar industry; and 2) taking the impressive new statistics on solar jobs to the publk-ar-large. Interesti.ngly, because taxes and bonds are not now a feasible source of capital for seeding the solar option, the alternative appears to be working through the PUC to authorize long-term loans provided by the utilities themselves for a statewide conversion. There are precedents for such a development. In sum, as CEO sees it. the real choice in energy development is between big and small, and if the only way small solar businesses can survive is in a new partnership with government, through whieh they tap into private capital pools, then so be it. - SA 1 California has already taken the national lead in the number of solar ener~firms, and in December 1977 initiated the nation's first tax credit for purchasers of solar systems. 2 Calculated at the number of solar jobs that would be generated by a solar program aimed at retrofitting 75 percent of California's residential and 50 percent of its commercial sectors, supplying process heat for industrial uses that require temperatures up to 212·. as well as providing all new construction between 1981 and 1970 with solar. These can be divided into "immediate" and "near term" priority group•. 3 These new jobs would not be substituted for jobs that would otherwise exist. 4 Natural gas provided 90 percent of space and water heating in the residential sector in California in 1975, and 77 percent in Ule commercial sector. This reliance, if continued, must be increasingly supplied from non-California, capital-exporting sources. LNG is the only source even providing enough new Jobs upon which to base this comparison.
Page lORAIN April 1978 GOOD THINGS House of Musical Traditions-Catalog 305 S. Washington Street Berkeley Springs, W. VA 25411 Are you into nose flutes or Bolivian CherangQs? Mandolins or Chinese Temple Gongs? These folks have avail· able by mail an amazing range of ethnic and esoteric instruments and books on difeerent musical tradition . Ecclecticism is a good antidote to cul tural imperialism and predecessor to new traditions. - TB Welcome to the Magic Theater, Dick McLeester, 1976, 124 pp., $3 from: Food for Thought Publications P.O. Box 331 Amherst, MA 01002 "A Handbook for Exploring Dreams." Here's a wonderful example of someone who had an interest, explored the resources, learned a lot, and had the good will and forethought to bring the information together in beautiful access format. There are books listed here for psychological int rprerarions of dreams, ative American and other cultures' use of dreaming, dream myths and fairy tale, and dreams as part of consciousnes -raising and political action. It is very thorough and comfonably personal. Sweet dreams. - LdeM A catalog is being pulled together of manufacturer and individuals active in cut-cost construction in the Pacific Northwe [- particularly those projects whose products reflect resource conservation and appropriate technology. The survey and eventual Ii ting is being funded by a CRTA grant lasting through cptembcr 1978. Anyone. interested in being included Or wanting further information should contact Mary Smith, Portland Community College/Rock reek campus, 17705 N.W. Springville Rd., Portland, OR 97229, phone 645446 1 (ext. 23 5). PLATE 18 - MIDDLE EASTERN DUMBEK Eureka Express P.O. Box 145 Ft. Wayne, IN 46801 Our good friend Robin Leenhouts, from the New Western Energy Show, wrote to say that she had forgotten to mention Greg Jacobs and the Eureka Express as being very important contributors to the design of the NWES set-up and the building of their trailer. (See the Feb/March RAIN. ) It also turns out that Greg's project is worthy of mention on its own account. He's putting together six railroad cars as a "traveling learning resource center offering to children, teachers and the general public opportunities to explore and learn about craft, design and problem-solving." What a wonderful idea. They're having some trouble with their funding but hopefully they'll have their workshop on the rails before too long. Check them out. -LdeM BUSINESS Consultancy for Small Businesses, Malcolm Harper, 1976, published by Intermediate Technology Development Publications (England) and available in the U.S. and Canada for $15 from: International Scholarly Book Service P.O. Box 555 Forest Grove, OR 97116 Often the hardest things to see clearly are those we're most closely associated with, and the advice of a trusted friend is an invaluable gift to a small business that can't afford the luxury of high paid consultants to review its performance. The Briarpatch Network in the San Francisco Bay Area has shown us the value of having people vi it the small businesses in its network, giving feedback and advice. This manual was put together by ITGD to summarize some five years of experiments in Kenya. Brazil, Sri Lanka and Indonesia ro develop useful economic on-the-spot consulting to small businesses in developing countries. It covers the concepts of small business operation and analysis and trouble shooting of problems, as well as providing a detailed training course for consultants to assist small business. Valuable both for selfanalysis and setting up advisory Services. -1'B Cost Accounting Concepts for Nonfinancial Executives, Joseph Simini, 1976, $12.95 from: AMACOM 135 W. 50th Street New York, NY 10020 A good primer for understanding business accounting. If you're not into business, it lets you know how business people think. If you're thinking about or are starting a business, lets you know what to worry about or not worry about. If you're into corporate accountability, gives you a beginning sense of the shell games that go on with different depreciation schedules, writeoffs, and ways of calculating profit and loss. - 1'B POLITICS Strengthening Citizen Access, 1977, $325 for private firms, $10 for nonprofit educational institutions, $5 for public interest groups from: Exploratory Project for Economic Alternatives 2000 P Street N.W. Washington, DC 20036 A fine overview of the need for and prest;:nt status of citizen participation in government. It discusses kinds of agencies such as Om budspersons, Consumer Agencies, Attorneys General and Public Interest Law firms that are institutional attempts to "represent" public interest in government decisions. It also surveys the means for shifting the cost of citizen access, procedural reforms to encourage access such as class action
ADri11978 RAIN Pa!1ell suits, determining a person's standing to sue, erosion of state and federal immunity to being sued, freedom of information acts, etc. A good background to figure out how to get your voice heard. -TB For the People, Joanne Manning Anderson, 1977, $5.95 from : Addison-Wesley Reading, MA 01867 I don't really like the idea of consumerism. It seems that in this resource-scarce world people should learn to consume less, not push Detroit (or whoever) to make the damn things better. But of course, we must learn to use things well. This book is a consumer action handbook done by Ralph Nader's Public Citizen. It's a good primer to get in to organizing health care products (drugs, doctors and nursing homes), utilities, the food system and the media. Another step in teaching each other to take action against the negative forces that can control our lives. - LdeM Military Maneuvers ($5) Military Maneuvers/Update ($1) Weapons for the World/ Update 1977 ($3) The Economic Impact ofMilitary Spending (price not listed) from : Council on Economic Priorities 84 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10011 U.S. Government military expenditures now make up about 5-112 percent of our total GNP. Sales of our most sophisticated military hardware to other countries by our defense contractors (often with little congressional knowledge or control) now run $10-12 billion per year. We're told that the foreign arms sales are necessary to pay for our imported petroleum, and that reduction in DOD expenditures would adversely affect employment and income as well as national security. This series of studies by CEP suggests another interpretation : Military Maneuvers .analyzes interchange of personnel between the DOD and its contractors; MM/Update reviews congressional response to that "potential" conflict of interest; Weapons for the World/Update gives a company-by-company overview of foreign military sales; and The Economic Impact ofMilitary Spending adds another voice to the list of studies showing that almost an y alternative use of our money would provide more Jobs and income. War production may be "good business"-but not good policy for our economy, lives, national security or peace of mind. -TB rnrnw~ TIrn~ . Four Arguments for the Elimination of Televisio1l, Jerry Mander, 1978, $4.95 from : William Morrow and Company 105 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10016 News from Nowhere, Edward Jay Epstein, 1973, $2.95 from: Random House 201 E. 50th St. New York, NY 10022 When people ask me now about what they can do to solve the ills of the world I tell them : "Get rid of your television set." They are usually a bit shook up at the thought of actually doing something, but if you're serious about any changes, this is a good place to start. It will give you five new hours a day to figure out and do all sorts of other things. It will make you healthier and less anxious. It will give you the time and attention to focus on yourself and the people and things around you with enough intensity to learn the next steps (0 take. It will free you from a barrage of advertisement and by cutting the size of the audience that networks sell to advertisers, it will reduce the funding of TV. And it will cut out a lot of confusion. TIrnrn~ The good things on television aren't worth it. If they are well-done, it means they're neither controversial or significant enough to be important, as the Fai rness Doc trine requires presentation of all sides of controversial issuesguaranteed to result in a muddled program. Advertising pressures also prevent coverage of significant issues, as does pressure from local stations that might cancel network shows and lower the audience that can be sold to advertisers. Even 24 hours a day of "good things" means more diversion from the really important things TV can't or won't cover. Both these books give you plenty of justification for giving your tube the axe. Mander's book, although somewhat melodramatically written, lays out the essential effects of TV on human health, its tendency to warp our sense of reality, and its furthering of centralization and control. News from Nowhere lays out more clearly and in more detail the whys and wherefores by which TV news is forced into a bizarre caricature of reality. When you get rid of your tube, don't do it quietly. Let them know. We've heard rumors of people leaving the smashed remains of their TVs on the steps of their local station with a goodby note explaining all. On to freedom' - TB
Page 12 RAJN April 1978 It's bad enough (0 be duped. It's worse (0 be constantly considered stupid enough not (0 notice when you've been had! You sec, a number of us a.e. folks from the provinces were brought inco D.C. in late January (0 hear about DOE's "role in support of a.e.," as / mentioned in the Feb/Mar '78 RAIN. There was a rapid question-and-answer session in which Jerry Plunke([ of MERDJ and Harriet Barlow of ILSR were able (0 illuminate for the 300-person audience that Maxine Savitz (DOE-Conservation) didn't understand the relation between a.e. and lifestyle change co "simple living." But even more vital (0 the transition (Oward a solar America was the revelation , via an internal DOE memorandum, thac the energy agc ncy was actually pl anning to cut the nation's solar energy budget in fiscal year 1979 1 Score: Nuclear 1,750; Solar 40 /\s you can see on the charts we've reprinted from that documen t, budget au thori ty for solar energy for FY '79 is projected to be $373 million; the budget authority for FY '78 is $390 million. Simultaneously, the nuclear research budget will remain approximately 4-112 times as high and the fossil research budget wil l increase from $846 million to $924 million . The document also reveals that DOE has over 1,700 employees involved in nuclear development work (1 ,300 field personnel and 450 at D.C. headquarters) while less than 40 arc working in wind, solar thermal and photovoltaic research. IronicalJy, the report reveals that while solar technologies have less than 1140 the staffing found in the nuclear division, DOE nonetheless projects solar's contribution to the nation's energy supply to be 10,000 times greater than it presently is while the nuclear con tribution will o nly increase by a factor of six. SIDE ·STEPPING FY'79 Budget DOE ($ in Em- BTUs BTUs millions ) ployees in 1979 in 2000 NUCLEAR AND FOSSIL FUELS Nuclear 1,120.3 450 HQ 4.1 quads 25.0 quads 1,300 Field Coal .15 1. 3 5 Coal Gasi fica tion ? none 4.2 Oil ? .2 5.5 Oil Shale ? none 3.2 Natural Gas ? .2 6.0 SOLAR AND GEOTHERMAL Solar Thermal 82.0 11 HQ 200 kWe 20 Gwe 6 Field Wind 40.7 4 HQ 300 kWe 20 Gwe OTEC 33.2 6 HQ 0 10 Gwe Biomass 26.9 3 HQ 3 quads 3 quads Pho(Ovol taic 76.1 8 HQ 200 kWe 30 Gwe Geothermal 126.7 5S HQ .05 quads 4-9 quads 1S Field
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