December 1978 RAIN Page 19 numerous and constant credible individual and organizational critiques of Carter's pro-nuclear energy program, the "goslow" attitude and continuing underfunding of DOE solar power programs being clamored for by the citizenry, and the lack of the "moral equivalent of war" when it comes to wind power, it is hard to see how Brown can fail to gain ground on Carter on this issue. . The second important item was a general perception that the independent, non-government contractors who have already built large wind-turbines on a totally private enterprise basis were far ahead of those feeding at the government trough of taxpayers' dollars when it came down to the question of who really had cost-effective units available for sale. There are only three private U.S. companies now building large wind machines and all were present to explain their products. They are: WTG Energy Systems, Inc. Box 87, 1 Lasalle St. Angola, NY 14006 Energy Development Co. Contact: AI Wellikoff RD2 7161549-5544 Hamburg. PA 19526 (200 kw size coSts $200,000, or SI000/kw) 2151562·8856 Wind Power Products Co. Contact, Torry Mehrkam KPff Engineering (10 to 225 kilowatt sizes; 225 kw version costs 580,000 or $35 lIkw) 700 Uoyd Bldg. Seattle, WA 98101 Cc;mtact: Charles Schachle 2061622-5822 In any case, perhaps the outstanding presentation at the Thrivial conference was an updated analysis of "Voluntary Simplicity" and other consumer groups by Arnold Mitchell of SRI International. Called "Changing Consumer Values," it basically projects a decline in the number of "outer-directed consumers" known as the American middle-class, who buy to impress others, presently set national consumption patterns, and support mass markets; while suggesting that "innerdirected consumers," composed of the "I-am-me" types, the "experiential" buyers, and the "sociallY conscious" consumers, will be expanding rapidly. This is shown in Figure 1. For information on how to get a copy of Mitchell's talk, write: Publications SRI International Menlo Park, Calif. a thousand words" to the participants and so that citizen antinuclear advocates could actually take something away with them that would further empower their efforts on the local scene. There were too many "general" plenary sessions which were simply simple-minded "rah-rah" cheerleader talks imparting little useful information. The rest of the conference consisted of easy-to-organize panels from which it was difficult to extract real data useful in stopping nuclear power. In late September and early October, the conference season began again for me. With a truly wasteful use of jet fuel, I flew to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) conference in Hyannis, Mass., then back across the country to "Thrivial" the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) annual meeting in Asilomar, California, and finally, after a one-day respite in Portland, to the Critical Mass '78 citizens' antinuclear conference in Washington, D.C., speaking at all three. I picked up a lot of interesting stuff, from gossip and rumor to hard technical data on the "soft path," that seems vital and weird enough to share. Third, but possibly most illustrative of the kind of Americans involved in wind work, was an evening banquet questionand-answer session on personal values led by Alvin Duskin, former aide to retiring Senator Abourezk (D- ND). Instead of the conventional speechifying, AI challenged us to ponder, and share with one another aloud, the reasons why we were there ... why wind power? As one after another of the diners stood up and stated why they'd decided to work on aeolian energy, it became clear that this was a group of scientists, businessmen and technotwits who relished their opportunity to apply technical know-how in a humane, environmentally benign way and rapidly see the results of their personal efforts. The phrase that summed up the feeling was, "I feel good about engineering/seiling something that is not only not a piece of military weaponry, but also quite likely to greatly improve our lives." In addition, people expressed enjoyment at being part of a small group of people in a rapidly growing field where their individual contributions would be noticed and in which they were just plain "having the time of their lives." Proceedings of the Sept. '78 AWEA conference are available for $7.00 from : Dr. Vaughn Nelson '78 AWEA Proceedings Alternative Energy Institute West Texas State University Canyon, TX 79016 r- ----~~~~-------- • There was one bright spot for me, however . .. Tom Hayden. For a former SDSer like me, it was a real upper to find Tom still working along with us on all those changes we began in the '60s. Just seeing him tied together a lot of history, including the changing values which surfaced at the other two conferences-AWEA and IDSA, and reminded me of my earliest reason for working on a.t. ... to empower people. We call it democracy. It's important not to forget that goal as we lobby for the technologies to make it possible. -Lee Johnson
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