I ENERGY Energy-Efficient Community Planning, James Ridg~way, 1979, 218 pp., $9.95 from: • The JG J?ress Box 351 Emmaus, PA 18049 Long-time RAIN readers will already be familiar with many of the experiments described in this book, such as the ordinances of Davi~, California promoting energy conservation, the Clayton, New •Mexico, wind turbine generator, Seattle's source separation recycli,ng program and the policies of Hartford, Connecticut in assisting the development of an urban food production system. If you don't recognize those projects then the book will be a good introduction to many of the innovative energy conservation programs being implemented on the local level. The municipal documents (e.g. Davis housing code, Hartford's "Community Energy Corporation") at the end of each chapter are a useful tool for anyone attempting to draft similar policies. Now what we need is a critical analysis of these programs to determine if they are living up to their expectations. -PC Energy, Jobs and the Economy, Richar~ Grossman and Gail Daneker, 1979, 116 pp., $3.45 from: Carrier Pigeon 75 Kneeland St., Room 309 Boston, MA 02111 The book is an updated version (e.g. cites Rodberg's Solar Transition) of the Jobs and Energy Study by Environmentalists for Full Employment (RAIN, May 1977) plus excerpts from Senator Kennedy's Creating Jobs through Energy hearings in March of 1978. The information, which is easily digestible, is stil( valuable reading. Buy a copy for an unemployed 'friend. -PC Creating Jobs Through Energy: A Guide to Resources for Decisionmakers, V.S~ Department of Energy, $6.00, 1979, 105-plus pp., from Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402 Stock No. 061-000-00329-1 Although the expression "energy creates jobs" is somewhat cliched among solar activists, the DOE has finally come out with a handbook which focuses on the employment effects of energy development at the local, state-and national level. Lofs of charts, numbers and equations make Creating Jobs - Through Energy an item for those . "decisionmakers" who want the technical, bare, economic facts ·about energy and employment. -DW I December 1979 RAIN Page 3 RAIN ACCESS "Paying for Power," 10/10/79 In These Times, $1.00 from: In These Times 1509 N. Milwaukee Ave. Chicago, IL 60622 In this article David Moberg reviews four of the leading books on the current energy crisis and their proposals for the future. The books are: The Politics of Energy, by Barry Commoner, Alfred A. Knopf, $4.95. Energy in America's Future: The Choices Before Us (a study prepared for the Resources for the Future National Energy Strategies Project). Sam H. Schurr, Project Director. The Johns Hopkins University Press, $10.95. Energy Future: Report of the Ener- . gy Project at the Harvard Business School, edited by Robert Stobaught and Daniel Yergin, Random House, $12.95. Energy: The Next Tw(j!nty Years (a report sponsored by the Ford Foundation), Hans H. Landsberg, Study Group Chairman, Ballinger Publishing Co., $9.95. The way we envision and plan our energy future is not simply a problem of te~tmical engineering but raises many sticky political questions .. . "not only about energy but also about much of the the country's production of goods and values-such as equality, fairness, or safety." Moberg writes that the studies by Resources for the Future and the Ford Foundation have an easy answer: leave it all to the market. The Harvard Business School professors share that basic faith but temper their vi~w with some healthy skepticism and a somewhat more global perspective. (Note:· others contend that this book is more radical than Moberg would h<1,-ve us believe.) Commoner (see RAIN VI: 1: 3, Oct. '79) is the heretic, arguing for "social governance" of the economy to. improve the market and even for supplanting the market, in many cases, with conscious coordination. Uftimately, Moberg concludes, we should "combine the best features of the market with the best features of planning. Our ~nergy future is too important to leave to powerful megacorporations and the roughshod adjustments wrought by uncontrolled price increases." -MR "Energy for a New Society: Visions of a People's Energy Future," $.10 ($6.00/100) from: • Movement for a New Society 4722 Baltimore Ave., Box A Philadelphia, PA 19143 Is nuke fighting melting you down? Are you spending all your energy trying to save energy? If so, then this little tabloid may be just what you need. This special issue of the MNS Dandelion is printed as a four-page newspaper for easy reading and distribution. It emerged from "the stated need of anti-nuclear and safe-energy activists at the grassroots level to find a way to articulate a coherent long.- - term energy vision which people joining the struggle can understand." • The energy situation is explained in the context of the decline of the modern .industrial era and is posed for comparison against a vision of the future complete with diversity, self-reliance, and appropriate social/productive technologies. There is also a good section on the tr11.nsition to a renewable energy future, and the entire issue is laid out ni·cely with several charts and graphics. I think this would be a handy tool for all of us working on t~e grassroots.level to distribute at conferences, when we canvass, and in our communities and workplaces. As the authors point out: "In the end, the energy 'crisis' is really a crisis of human energy, a test of our ability as a society to change and grow as loving human beings, to use our best creativity to build a just and humane social.order." -MR
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