Page 6 RAIN November 1980 earned and extremely useful. In a very short time period, the government at all levels has adopted a commitment to solar programs that must be implemented well. Solar profe~sional associations have sprung up. Solar is being introduced in engineering, architecture, environmental and planning curriculums. The solar.advocates, against great bureaucratic odds, are praying the practicality and reliability of our option-in most impressive ways. But here is the other edg~. The possibility of a movement is being replaced by a professional bureaucracy which some might even call an elite: We have our conferences, ou·r trade associations, our scientific papers just like the rest qf the energy incl'ustry. We have our multi-million share of the Department of Energy budget, our government subsidies for grass-roots action, even someone in the DOE Office of Consumer Affairs to hear our grievances sympathetically. Even if solar hasn't made it, we have. But we know that solar will never become respectable just by the counter~culture putting on three-piece suits and joining forces with an exceptional businessman or two, Making solar acceptable is not as simple as having it tested and.certified. Advocating a solar path as the major emphasis of U.S. energy policy is an immediate threat to certain economic and institutional • interests. More deeply, it is a threat to the traditional Arnericap frontier mentality ("solar is too feminine," said one utility executive to·an interviewer, while "synfuels are more macho"). Whether solar is "really" a threat, or only a perceived one, is b~side the point: National priorities are determined by what powerful lobbies see in their immediate interests. Solar advocate~ ought not be lulled by their n~wly-won respectability into thinking that solar ~tself is therefore on its way. Nor should solar a·dvoc;~tes rule out the possibility of giving up that same respectability and job security in battles over energy priorities, especially if a new federal administration should throttle th solar program to a standstill. What I'm suggesting is that we use the r:ules of the system as effectively as possible in pursuing our cause, but never lose sight of the larger tact that those rules are rigged unfairly to our disadvantage, and that only changes in outer conditions (OPEC price hikes, nuclear disasters, changing public opinion) will bring our woik · The,·solar·entrepreneur must work _by the standards of cut~throat capitalism by day, ·economic· democracy by night. within the system to fruition. • Who are the potential allies available to us in this difficult task? I have already alluded to most of them. First, ther_e is a burgeoning solar industry I which is learning the hard way that, unlike.Horatio Alger, they will not make it on their own. Second, there are those energy-intensive businesses' (farming and transportation, for example) which are hard hit by rising oil and.gas prices, and which share none of the·windfall. Third, there are the schools and universities whose curriculums should begin reflecting a greater solar emphasis in the '80s. Fourth, there are the unions (sheetmetal, plumbers and others) which correctly assume a greater jobs potential from sola~ and conservation.than any other energy source. Fifth, there are the citizens organizations (the elderly~minorities, consumers arid so • on) which face inflation, service cutbacks, and joblessness due to the capital-intensive,nature of current energy policies. My point is that the transition to a conserving, solar society can and will occur through a renewed spirit of self-sufficiency among networks of people across America, almost in spite of what higher officialdom enacts or declares. There are signs of this change every-' where. Legislators I knowin Massachusetts·are working·on a bill to create a state "SolarMass," similar to our SolarCal. In Franklin County of that state, citizens are burning wood in their stoves and \ documenting the savings on their utility bills. In Fitchburg, Massachusetts, a citizen-action program weatherized one-half the hous~ ing stock in seven weeks this year. A couple in upstate New York has started their own "electric utility" by wheeling power out of the Hudson River. A Puerto Rican group in Jersey City contributes its own "sweat equity" to ins1J,lating and solarizirig neighborhood housing abandoned by <;1bsentee landlords. A.professor in Massachusetts hooks up a windmill and cpgenerator system to a school building. A group of Navajos in Ariz~na, calling themselves "the No one--has gone to jail for·solar energy~ ·No one has been ele~ted to offic;e on a solarplatform. solar savages,'' builds, sells an,d installs their inexpensive flat plate collectors (in this .case, with _the help of Western SUN). The first, affordable "solar condominiums" are sold in San Diego County. A Community Development Corporat_ion in San Bernardino builds a solar hot water-system for a block of ghetto housing. A farmer in . Iowa makes his own hydrog~n and gasohol to power his tractor and truck. A couple in Davis builq and,share a neighborhood _solar tract called "Villag_e Homes." And so it goes: the society based on renewable resources rises into vision through the personal efforts of its pioneers. The basic change comes on a personal and community level, and.can never be taken away from above-though it can be contained. And as Americans change from passive energy consumers to active energy producers, they will daily marvel at the new possibilities concealed from them during the age of profitable waste:- They will learn that solar is a lost tradition of great and ancient cultures and, for example, that the Greek playwright Aeschylus condemned the✓cipponents of solar energy long ago as '-~swarming ants in sunless ·caves." • The odds against this transition happening without chaos and war are slim indeed. The record of nations adapting to _basic change is strewn with failures. But try we must. It may be the ultimate task of Western SUN to prevent this natimi.'s energy policy from being dominated by the modern version of "swarming ants in sunless • cav'es." DO
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