necessary and possibly a hindrance to NCA T. But it was largely the probability, supported by past experiences of many of us, that any effective NCA T would have to cross wires with the interests of the organizations represented on MERDI's board and would likely encounter severe oppositio_n to its activities from that board to the degree it bad control over NCA T. -TB Dear RAIN, Got your April issue today and have already been all the way through it. Immensely pleased that you've taken the gloves off. NCAT and DOE and Carter deserve the most biting criticism that you can give them. No pussyfooting. In the same mail I received a letter from Hiram Shaw of NCAT telling me that a proposal that I worked on for the Clamshell Alliance would not be accepted. It was a classic case that I will not go into as it probably mirrors many stories you have already heard. It did give me a chance to go out to Butte and see what was going on there in January and to renew my acquaintance with Ellyn Murphy, an intern there (and previously with NWES). The only justification for an NCAT I can see is if it were doing real work, developing devices which would be cheap, easily understood and put together and all that other alternative, appropriate, soft, low, intermediate technology bullshit criteria. I would like to see some concerted, organized work on working machines that would start from urban tenant solar (windowboxes for space heat and hot water) and work up through household systems to neighborhood systems. A test center for such an idea might do some good. But then maybe not. You should know that the Clamshell Alliance is putting an energy van on the road before the end of the month and that the van can be contacted through myself or Steve Crowley at 507 R Franklin St., Cambridge, MA 02139. We are looking for posters, displays and literature to carry and disseminate and working models to demonstrate and do workshops on. Wish us well. I wish you well, but that's because you consistently do good work. Yours, George Mokray P.S. I was like Elijah the unknown guest at one of the planning meetings for NCAT three years ago up at Goddard. Sat through at least three of the most boring meetings I have ever sat through and watched the progress get stranger and stranger over the hours (now years). I lean toward scrapping it and most of the other government thingies down the line. Steve Baer sounds better and better every day. P.P.S. Did you see that the FY '79 budget has cut out both community gardening and direct marketing monies? Please tell people to write to: Rep.Jamie L. Whitten, House Subcommittee on Agricultural Appropriations Washington, DC 20515 Rupert Cutler, Asst. Secretary, USDA Washington, DC 20250 Joseph Crapa, House Subcommittee on Domestic Markets 1336 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20515 as well as your reps and senators. It is important. Dear Rain Gang: rnrnmu feedback I have a suggestion for you all. I think it would be wise that before anyone at RAIN put pen to paper in the future it be required that they read Steve Baer's thoughts on government and free enterprise on p. 17, April 1978 RAIN. IT'S NICE TO HAVE A LITTLE SANITY WITH MY RAIN. It seems to me that your publication is going the same route that many other similar pubs have gone: 1. Bitching about how other people are spending the government's money. 2. Telling everyone how it SHOULD be spent. 3. Trying to teach people how to get in line for their fair share of this free money. That money is MY MONEY that the tax man took at the point of a gun. TO HELL WITH NCAT. Stuart B. Wahlberg Stuart, Hope this issue gives some balance. Although we've had and have openly expressed strong reservations· in both cases, we've tried to do our best to help both the DOE and NCA T a.t. efforts get going in the most positive way possible. Experience bas confirmed our doubts, but without pitching in ourselves we would know much less about why these rocks can't fly. Without actually trying out such options (and local a. t. as well), it's our beliefs against theirs, with no real experience to draw upon. It's all coming clean in the wash now. -TB Dear Tom: Re your article on NCAT in the April issue of RAIN, you elicited comments from those on the periphery of the situation. My views are as follows: I feel about NCAT the way I feel about New York City. It should be detonated and started all over again. Best regards, Richard Katzenberg Natural Power, Inc. New Boston, NH (past president, Amer. Wind Energy Assoc.)
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