World Press Review., monthly, $16/yr., from: Box 915 Farmingdale, NY 11737 Published as a 11nonprofit education service to foster international information ex- ' change,11 this magazine provides a refreshing alternative to an exclusive diet of American- / generated news. Each issue carries reports and feature articles reprinted from sources as diverse as II Tempo (Rome), Pravda (Moscow), the Hindustan Times (New Delhi), Tishrin (Damascus), and Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo). The reader is provided with a fascinating mix of perspectives as reporters from many cultures, with a variety of political viewpoints, comment on events and conditions in each other's co\mtries. As an added attraction, each issue carries dozens of cartoons from around the world. One reading of World Press Review may prove completely effective in curing a lingering addiction to Time or New~week. -JF ENERGY How to Keep Electric Utilities Solvent, by Amory Lovins, 1981, lOpp., $1.00, from: Fair Electric Rates Now · 1620 E. 4th Ave. Olympia, WA 98501 Jn February 1981 Amory Lovins sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Donald Regan outlining the consequences of continuing efforts on the part of the nation's electrical utilities to salvage their coal and nuclear construction programs. As the Reagan Administration moves towards a last ditch effort to bail out nuclear power, this document is an excellent introduction-to the economic issues involved. As Lovins points out: "Powerful market forces are converging on the utilities: high interest rates, falling ratios (current, coverage, and market/book), increasing dependence on "funny money" (AFUDC) and other creative bookkeeping, stagnant demand, real cost escalation, greater consumer opposition to rate hikes, heavy short term borrowing to pay dividends, shareholder effort's to prevent further dilution of equity (thus forcing even higher debt/equity ratios), arid many more. These signals are not fortuitous artifacts. They offer unmistakable evidence that the utilities' financial problems are of a fundamental nature-both fiscal and economic. A utility can go broke without suffering a catastrophic GPU-style loss of cash flow accident, simply because its business takes too much cash, pays it back slowly, is unexpectedly price-elastic, and cannot compete." The reasons are painfully clear. The marginal cost of thermally generated electricity is around 8¢/kWh (1980$), which on a heat ha.sis is equivalent to $130 a barrel oil. Utilities are investing massive quantities of capital into some of the least viable energy options available. These basic economic facts are not subject to change by the Reagan Administration. The solution is equally clear. Utilities taking a least-cost approach to providing energy services will find themselves gradually drawn out of the energy generation business and become more involved in providing system stability and transmission as increased energy efficiency and decenfralized genera-' . tion comes to meet a larger portion of utility loads. The result would be an electrical grid that is financially stable, with lower rates for custome_rs and more money available for other things. -KB Information Resources in the U.S.A. on New and Renewable Energy: A Description and Directory, prepared by the Technical Information Center, U.S. Department of Energy, June 1, 1981, 80pp., free, from: Public Information Services Bureau of Public Affairs Room4827 A Department of State Washington, DC 20520 Prepared as a U.S. government contribution to the United Nations Conference on New and Renewable Energy held in Nairobi, Kenya in August, this directory lists and briefly describes hundreds of research organizations, trade associations, nonprofit groups and specialized libraries which p~ovide information on various forms of alternative energy. Also listed are fed~r~l and state energy offices and computerized energy data bases. The book is a valuable resource. It's too bad more attention was not paid to m<;lking its contents readily accessible. As a case in point: how would you go about finding the entry for RAIN? Forget the index; none is provided. We are not among the organizations in the 11 Energy Information Resources" section, we don't appear as an "Information Center" and we are not referred to as a periodical. The fact is, we are listed (with no cross-referencing) as a 11Regional Network of Private Organizations." That's probably the "worst case" example; with some initial awareness of the book's idiosyncracies, anyone with an interest in renewable energy should still be able to use it to uncover a wealth of useful information. We can hope that information will soon be made even more useful in a revised edition, complete with index. -JF October 1981 RAIN Page 21 --- -- FOOD The Berkeley CQ-op Food Book, edited by Helen Black, 1980, 276pp., $7.95, from: Bull Publishing Company P.O. Box208 Palo Alto, CA 94302 .This book is a veritable encyclopedia of valuable consumer information. It is packed with short, entertaining and skillfully written articles, graphics, recipes and more, all revolving around the theme of helping consumers to save money while food shopping and to prepare foods more tastefully and nu- . tritiously. You can use it to learn how coffee beans are processed, the difference between carob and cocoa, how to avoid gas when eating beans, ~nd even how much money you can save by making bread at home. An appendix includes useful infor.mation on nutrition . A chart of 11Estimated Safe and .Adequate Daily Dietary Intakes of Selected Vitamins and Minerals" gives supplement users clues whether they might be overdoing -it or not. All in all, this book is going to find a good home in my library-if it isn't always off in the ki'tchen or dining room. -Kalee Powell Kalee is on the staff of Portland's Nutrition Information Center.
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