Will the Department of Energy Finally Stop Nuking America?
Gray, Peter
Will the Department of Energy Finally Stop Nuking America? Prospects for national energy reform by Peter Gray January 26, 1990: The briefing room atmosphere was cheerful and relaxed. Several...
...dTehde t ha rweea ym taoj oorb smeravneu mfaacrtkuerte rbsa rriare Philips, GE, and Osram...
...But efficiency doesn't complement other energy sources, it replaces them—especially when the survival of an industry depends on demand increases to justify massive funding...
...Supposedly, testing enabled the U.S...
...Armed with better information, I tried again t find local sources of wonder bulbs...
...At these affairs, Watkins usually gives a short opening remark, and he often attends the entire hearing...
...tive: sending out efficiency teams of lighting specialists to "help get the federal house in order...
...I asked about fluorescent ballasts...
...Used by us, the new weapons would be called a "counterforce attack...
...About two tests each year are per...
...Yet we should be wary of this approach being used as a ploy to say, "All fuels cause some environmental damage, and we can't precisely measure any of it, so let's assume those effects are equal, and ignore all of them...
...An emissions tax deserves to be called a "user fee," not to disguise what it is but to emphasize that it is a charge for using the public atmosphere as a waste dump...
...A better policy would be to tax (or subsidize) each appliance by the amount of energy it will waste (or save) during, say, three years, compared to the current average model...
...to reduce its deficits and enjoy the benefits of being an energy exporter...
...If contractors are liable for damages they cause while working with some of the most hazardous substances known and are subject to the political risk of an end to the Cold War, many may decide to take their interest elsewhere...
...If he makes mistakes, they're most likely to stem from his excessive faith in advanced technology...
...2) up-front accounting of the risks and costs of waste disposal and plant decommissioning...
...As efficiency specialist Jones began wiring in a new solid state ballast (the voltage-boosting transformer that drives fluorescent tubes), Moore explained that each device would save taxpayers six dollars per year...
...Testing undermines deterrence because a measure of unreliability enhances stability "from both ends...
...A prominent photo on the wall gives a candid statement of DOE's real business...
...Under this format, manufacturers feel that they can only lose...
...The reporter next to me had dozed off...
...I want to introduce to you the first member of our efficiency teams—Charlie Jones, a career electrician for the Forrestal building...
...conservation has been mostly for volunteers and small entrepreneurs...
...He coniders the hardening of command and control facilities the most important recent advance in deterrence...
...why bother taking notes...
...The "acceptable standards" it has set for itself for air and water pollution have been many times higher than levels that apply elsewhere...
...If we know that the Soviets can't have full confidence in their entire arsenal, a first strike is less plausible...
...After all, we can make distinctions: Switching to nuclear power would cause immense quantities of plutonium to circulate throughout the country...
...And the wording of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act covers all private and state manufacturing but exempts federal facilities...
...give people information, and they will naturally buy the most efficient and environmentally benign products...
...The latestround of weapons development from DOE emphasizes "directed en g weapons and earth penetrating warheads...
...But the budget probably doesn't reflect Watkins's priorities...
...Nice numbers, but so What...
...Each hearing is an all-day affair, often on a locally pertinent topic...
...It's only a matter of setting a good example, he said...
...nor do many people live underground...
...Bomb America first One mid-January afternoon I waited in a reception area in DOE's Forrestal Building to interview Linda Stuntz, deputy undersecretary in charge of the Office of Policy, Planning, and Analysis...
...A logical place to start would be at the tenacious roots of the system: under the desert floor in the beautiful photo in Linda Stuntz's outer office...
...Each compact fluorescent that replaces a standard 75 watt incandescent will save about $5 per year...
...After all, during Reagan's tenure, the share of DOE's budget devoted to designing, testing, and manufacturing nuclear weapons increased from 32 to nearly 70 percent...
...military, accelerated the weapons takeover of DOE...
...Most tests are conducted under the desert floor, in shafts up to 10 feet in diameter and 6,000 feet deep...
...These new rules on liability are a bold expression of Watkins's ethical sense, and they are significant in what they reveal about the past...
...likely, pwability Noti e . assuming oyu...
...Talk about leveraged investments...
...DOE critics saw cause for hope in Watkins's performance as head of Reagan's AIDS Commission...
...i Fnall I compiled a list of six sources in the Washington metropolitan area...
...Global warming may also be the last chance to save fission (uranium-based) power...
...This attitude is epitomized in a statement that justified an 85 percent reduction in government funding for renewables: "Conservation and renewable energy sources are an important component of this administration's national energy policy...
...highly So why haven't you seen these at the local supermarket, or perhaps even heard of tftem...
...Taxing carbon consumption will promote efficiency, the best bridge toward sustainable energy use...
...a significant amount of money is still being put into nuclear power plants that aren't producing a kilowatt, while our air and water are threatened by nuclear waste...
...In all three positions, he was a member of the nuclear inner circle...
...ample proof of cooperation can be seen in agreements such as the Montreal Protocol on ozone-destroying chemicals, and most industrial nations already tax their fuels heavily...
...their 1 Yupsrecycled eY sent me uor Catalog eir c themselves - ataio , of course, selves . is ambitious...
...People would be free to buy or sell whatever they wanted, and we would see rapid progress toward the practical limits of efficiency...
...With the recent indications that there is an appreciable cancer danger even from the exposure to radiation that comes merely from being an airline passenger, the long-range health risks of government's decades of blatant nuclear mismanagement cannot be shrugged off...
...160 for a set of 10...
...High-level nuclear waste still leaks out of storage tanks there...
...Through the late 1980s, public outrage over the plants increased as the scale of abuse was gradually exposed...
...Among the side benefits will be improved energy security and cuts in other pollutants...
...What nif trueli:etroifitted half of the country's three s. 9 hey would replace 20 1,000megawatt power plants...
...Here's a story that illustrates DOE's role: In 1978, Congress directed Energy to set home appliance efficiency standards...
...His integrity and sense of justice were well known, but Watkins surprised nearly everyone with his candor, compassion, and creativity...
...We hope they will see the wisdom in this approach...
...One of Watkins's first projects at Energy was the use of "Tiger Teams" of nuclear facility experts, who invaded the weapons plants one by one, sometimes with little or no warning...
...And if they don't meet the standards, enforcement and the levels of fines are unpredictable...
...He closes his three-minute talk with thanks "for your willingness to assist us in this effort to devise a National Energy Strategy without insult to the environment...
...Without much fanfare, in recent months Watkins, Moore, and Stuntz have held hearings around the country on the National Energy Strategy...
...It's time for the government to set an example...
...not adding these costs to energy prices is an unjustifiable subsidy...
...On the other side is $3.3 billion, called "Respecting the Environment...
...Ronald Reagan, April 16, 1985 The problem is that the nation's energy market is far from competitive...
...Strengthening National Defense" is set at $9.2 billion—with $8.5 billion for nuclear weapons...
...Based on available evidence, the* U.S...
...Ten percent, in other words, of what the U.S...
...Consider compact fluorescent lightbulbs...
...One of the nuclear lobby's counterarguments to this trend is that solar would use many times the land area required by the equivalent in nuclear...
...explodes nuclear bombs underground...
...The uninitiated may be excused for asking, "What is the Energy Department doing in the nuclear bomb business...
...During his 1980 presidential campaign, Reagan singled out DOE as a prime example of government waste and promised to abolish the department...
...Altogether, including loan guarantees, tax breaks, and other subsidies, nuclear and fossil receive $40-50 billion per year from taxpayers...
...Moore sketched the projected results of the conservation and renewable energy initiatives...
...Additional testing limitations would allow the Soviets to fall back on previously tested , heavier, higher yield and relatively simpler warhead designs...
...Who would know that he had missed the off-script remarks...
...r strateg i c planners have the rudiments of sangit More probable is that nuclear testing is a key driver of the arms race, worth tens of billions of dollars to contractors for warhead production alone...
...Now falling oil prices, combined with Reagan's massive diversion of funds into the The department's budget diagram is full of euphemisms...
...Why did the government take longer to prod onto the market a few basic devices that will save consumers energy and money than it did to put a man on the moon...
...He didn't expect to be attacked: "Conservation doesn't conflict with other energy sources, but complements them...
...Ninety percent of the world's wind power (enough for 350,000 households) is generated in California, not because the resource is so good, but because energy policy there was originally favorable...
...Perhaps, but don't count on it...
...Tiger teams at Rocky Flats Because of the scale of the problems Watkins faces and the independent thinking he brings to his job, he's been compared to Gorbachev...
...Watkins is not likely to abuse his power for personal gain, but he still deserves oversight, skepticism, and frequent reality checks...
...Testing Need Greater," it says: The testing of nuclear weapons is more portant to the United States than to the Sovi et Union...
...Similar stories come from Savannah River, where serious accidents and pollutant releases that began in 1957 were finally made public in 1988...
...making nuclear bombs...
...In the words of Deputy Undersecretary Stuntz: "That didn't exactly set the tone for the agency to feel that it had a mission and a future...
...Efficiency was a main reason nuclear reactor orders ceased in 1978...
...If Watkins fulfills this promise at Energy, it won't be a minute too soon—America has no more of a coherent energy policy today than it did when DOE was established...
...Bulbs are Can you do the planet and yourself a favor through energy efficiency...
...Although their reports on environmental, health, and safety practices are written in euphemistic bureaucratese, they confirm that violations were serious and systematic...
...Techno sop For years DOE has argued that it is not subject to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and it has been free from compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act...
...15 large power plants will not need to be built...
...They tend to know a profitable opportunity when they see one...
...they consume 75 percent less energy...
...The noble-sounding purposes of the nuclear weapons clique put mundane items such as the environment in the deep shade...
...Watkins was handpicked by Hyman Rickover for the elite corps of Navy nuclear engineers, so he is a longtime member of what amounts to an officially sanctioned secret cult...
...Most citizens naturally leave it to "the experts" to define and implement strategy...
...others in the administration—notably White House Chief of Staff John Sununu and OMB Director Richard Darman—had a hand in it...
...What would such policy look like, and why do we want it...
...Drilling, lowering the bomb and instruments into the hole, and filling it with concrete, epoxy, and gravel takes up to two years, at an average cost of at least $30 million...
...On the other hand, fluorescents produce so much less heat that they'll need less ventilation room, and they'll reduce air-conditioning costs...
...Perhaps it is time for an honest policy review...
...we are going to start today...
...It shows a tranquil desert scene—at the Nevada Test Site, where the U.S...
...they produce essentially the same light as standard bulbs, without hum or flicker...
...Keeping all these_ juggling arugu miennt s in the air at the same time is a difg g act, but Energy PR their best...
...The feature these have in common is that they are not designed for fflent slaughter of humans: there's no need to focus emitted radiation for that job, or to have high accuracy...
...If testing doesn't promote deterrence, then what s9 There are two plausible answers: First coul be striving for first-strike cap abi1lity...
...After the Reaganauts wised up, the 1980s saw the steady, quiet diversion of DOE even further from its stated purpose...
...Several energy-saving devices have come straight from DOE labs...
...He announced a proposal to amend DOE acquisition regulations to make weapons contractors accountable for losses of government property from theft or embezzlement and for all penalties for not complying with environmental laws...
...After a year on the job, DOE Secretary James D. Watkins shows some promise of solving the perennial executive branch conundrum: Can we find agency leaders who have enough inside knowledge and power to get things done, yet can be trusted to act in the national interest...
...Yet DOE's budget has stayed roughly constant in real terms since 1980...
...It's hard to reconcile the budget with the rhetoric...
...no need to wait for the National Energy Strategy to come out in the fall...
...unilateral moratorium so that the Soviets can surge ahead until they get behind us, while we efall back ntosth teh waeta wpoill put us ahead of them What have we gained from all this modernizao Mainly more compact and efficient bombs Bombs that can he put on missiles 8 or 10 at a. time...
...Watkins has made several moves that, intentionally or not, are likely to start winding down DOE's weapons complex...
...relies more on high technology and on optimized warhead characteristics in its nu clear designs...
...How much do they cost...
...It's devoted to weapons plant cleanup...
...Watkins's version of perestroika is to change what he calls the "management culture" of the weapons plants...
...could percent, in money in where it 4-to-5 cdve miin rn, generate stead of finally a sto ry a 100 small down one sot lightbulbs, ion, Ya tracked dow °to write about outlet . small environmentally so Luttlh he nh cloth Burlington,' eventh so in Southsource, Seventh Generaback ;phone, but conscious ack attitud ' ut with a Vermont...
...Don't ask me any questions, don't hold me accountable, don't do anything else, just believe in me...
...Later on, that kind of faith came easily to Ronald Reagan, who had been a TV pitchman for General Electric, one of DOE's largest weapons contractors...
...Apologizing to the Environment" would be more accurate—it's devoted to weapons plant cleanup and defense nuclear waste disposal—that's a pretty low payment on a bill expected to exceed $100 billion...
...Not only are thousands of superfluous warheads strategically meaningless, but larger stockpiles are more expensive and environmentally damaging to maintain and more susceptible to accident and misuse, Even the cost of maintaining an oversized deterrent force is dwarfed by what we now spend to continually develop new bombs and to support the arms race that the new weapons stimulate...
...For example, utilities can be powerful promoters of rational energy production and use, but in their natural cost-plus rate-setting habitat, conservation and renewables are an anathema...
...Yet he supports DOE's testing program...
...Several staff members seemed disappointed by the low press turnout...
...Tiger Team reports may be expected to whitewash here and there, but each team is, when possible, composed of people with no direct connection to the plant under investigation...
...Fortunately, at DOE—unlike at the other departments where the spending hasn't matched the rhethoric—the right words ("efficiency," "conservation," "alternatives") can go a long way after so many years of silence...
...On January 24, 1990, the secretary dropped another bomb on them...
...is doublespeak Dcloa sWsiec worth quoting at length...
...At the Fernald, Ohio weapons plant, more than half a million pounds of radioactive wastes had been dumped into the air and into Ohio's largest drinking water aquifer...
...is dumping five billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, rather than seven billion...
...All of them are wholesalers in out-of-the-way industrial locations...
...The U.S...
...We will start this morning in this room...
...In the near term, efficiency clearly wins as a fossil fuel replacer, because even a sudden surge in orders couldn't bring any new plants on line before the end of the decade, under the most optimistic assumptions...
...Prices run $24 and up, and they often have to be h bulbs...
...search D.C...
...The regulations will set minimum efficiency levels, but manufacturers won't be rewarded for exceeding them...
...The U.S...
...As an admiral, he pushed for Aegis, an expensive, badly flawed, and probably unfixable naval weapons system...
...Prospects for national energy reform by Peter Gray January 26, 1990: The briefing room atmosphere was cheerful and relaxed...
...He was also an early backer of SDI...
...According to Tina Hobson, who served as a senior executive at DOE under the first four secretaries, "Duncan said, 'During my tenure at DOE, conservation will play the lead role.' He tried to make that happen, and he was dynamited by everybody...
...During the fifties, radioactive iodine had been deliberately released from the Hanford plant...
...While we wait for a clearer picture of the effects of global warming, common sense and prudence suggest that in dealing with it we take the cheapest steps immediately...
...Even though Japan and Germany have less than ideal conditions for collecting solar energy at home, they have been funding photovoltaic research at twice the American rate...
...Linda Stuntz points out that no source of energy is entirely without negative side effects...
...Perhaps we should give that offer serious consideration...
...If increased gradually over 10 to 20 years, a carbon tax will stimulate innovation just as OPEC did, but without causing economic dislocation...
...He opened a fluorescent ceiling fixture...
...Due to citizen protests, sung at the main Soviet site has'been suspended since last fall and probably won't restart until a new site in the Arctic becomes operational, if ever...
...We waited for Department of Energy (DOE) second-incommand W. Henson Moore, the deputy secretary...
...The solid-state ballast so admired by Deputy Secretary Moore is quietly "mining coal" at rates far beyond the R&D money spent on it...
...This would have been a good time to invest in even better technology...
...How much more can we squeeze out of efficiency, and what will it cost...
...But some warning signals come from one of Watkins's official alliances: The secretary stands behind Victor Stello, Bush's nominee for assistant secretary of defense programs, who has been under heavy fire from environmental groups for his sloppy, and possibly criminal, management of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission...
...L90 ate lightbulbts from' somsei othe r angles...
...P.G...
...How many one-megaton bombs (each 50 times as powerful as Hiroshima) would constitute a retiable deterrent...
...He is impressed with what he has heard about innovative projects that communities and firms have undertaken, often with little or no support from the federal government: one favorite is a cowmanureto-energy plant in El Centro, California...
...They've been on the market since the early '80s and have the following features: They are self-contained and screw into existing incandescent sockets...
...Here we were watching the Berlin Wall come down, and this guy was napping on the job...
...Despite such explicit statements, here was a request to cut the 1990 conservation budget by 5 percent...
...On the other side of the pie is a $3.3 billion slice called "Respecting the Environment...
...and the Soviet Union each stockpile...
...Gone fission The political key to positive energy policy is a willingness to divide the savings among all participants...
...That only 3 percent of tests are for this pur- pose is a clue to its iimportance...
...teeln°stib*ri)dy0 you ing h4tn ehwillP ' arem-n8$Bsu0.8wgort us yYecahrkUiibnga-V,h have for four Frith th deal mpeor nCtlhalyy, you saves _ ears, sto tr sneixtx times , w buying, changing lightbulbs...
...When Watkins mentioned an "ideological difference" in the administration over conservation, efficiency, and renewables, he sounded like a man sending out a coded message...
...This exercise ersr eicno amctmioenn...
...Our newer ddeessiigg”nuss are better, but if the Soviets could "fall back" on the more primitive bombs that they've already tested, they would get ahead of us (so what prevents them from doing that now...
...And who wants to ad-order lightbulbs...
...Well, I've known about them for six months, I've done the calculations, and I am convinced they time help m gie one . n e same putting a ietfi i dor rate ° t rit ewnPmhe, lpeople, : I it wne°11n7t fluorescents a r ieda shortsighted...
...He had his press packet...
...The alternative approach could be made consistently profitable, and extended to conservation programs (see ". . . Bulbs are," below...
...Maintain reiiabiiity—Occasionally the stockpile is sampled to make sure bombs wi illl1 exploede as advertised...
...Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, hardly a dove, estimated that 400 would be more than enough—no matter how big the enemy's arsenal...
...But this is specious: Nuclear plants require large quantities of water for cooling and tend to be located on valuable riverbank or coastal land, whereas solar plants can use desert land and can also take advantage of millions of rooftops...
...These are among many DOE research projects that will eventually save hundreds or even thousands of times the money spent on them...
...Renewables did better, with a 25 percent increase— about 4 percent of the journey back to pre-Reagan levels...
...3) reactor operators must buy their own liability insurance instead of shifting this burden to the public as they do now...
...A worthy and peaceable endeavor, but exploding nothing to d haatetpuraelvbe°nitn cbosnhvaesnntional with plosives from being detonated can be tested with dummy plutonium in place or through nonexplosive component tests...
...aetonswtl,s•hhyuittleirtohat.espetlietcetric .:1 1 nw whaatttThh sh tab ur.le b s f )iim ill:ill b never te.11 m. e how utility ear t-heir for added to s -with: eltric utilities' problem, bhaPm nln Yuoaed2wcinl letting 1)d thTeieY 'n°1n r1 lgueeweu°a bnwumtb utility savin g ther Ylb uh3n 1e1a°°:bnue ertsbwrSD ° eUinSeg t lneet'Y I nbanxdEstStS s sa;suiatvYt n;lei"c u ff dtlaYnbi5rbacucibe eac ability t. in terest...
...Because they are designed to destroy missiles, these weapons are of little deterrent value (unless they are launched first, the silos and subs they are atmed at wi11 be empty) we possess such "third generation" .missileesY, eaatnn' d the Soviets p with believe that an attack may" be occurring, they are' resented a choice: U or James Watkins's religious devotion to weapons as produced at least one contradiction...
...Bombs that a terrorist could put in a knapsack or smuggle across the border inside a bale of marlj a. Bombs that clearly threaten stability, arms control, and security...
...Three days after I watched Deputy Secretary Moore kick off DOE's efficiency and conservation initiative, the administration's 1991 Energy budget request was released to a full auditorium of reporters...
...This...
...Not on 25 hours a day...
...Bombs are not Bright . . . "Deterrence" is a much-abused buzzword, employed to justify any and every weapon invented since 1945...
...For the longer run, we have other options to consider...
...P.G...
...One of the main goals of that program is development of weapons capable of destroying hardened command posts...
...After all, AT&T, GE, Westinghouse, Martin Marietta, and Goodyear are contractors at DOE's weapons plants...
...Even if Watkins is adamantly committed to nuclear weapons development, he seems willing to clear away some of the underbrush of corruption, secrecy, and environmental abuses, then let the public decide on the merits whether to continue pouring tens of billions into bomb development...
...So the idea that DOE may be turning towards such essentials as energy conservation is a radical shift—one that should be encouraged at every turn...
...So because we've gainedmo ere from testing it is imperative that we test even more...
...Efficiency and conservation meant that while the economy grew by 50 percent, the number of homes increased by 20 million, and 60 percent more vehicles went on the road, energy consumption grew by only 8 percent...
...Charles Duncan was the second secretary, appointed by President Carter in 1979 and the last to try steering DOE toward its stated mission...
...They also stopped testing unilaterally for 19 months in 1985-87 and repeatedly asked us to join their moratorium...
...And he abstained from moralizing, even though he is a staunch conservative and a devout Catholic...
...Economic advancement is strongly correlated with lower, not higher, energy intensity (consumption per GNP dollar...
...After 40 years of classified operation, this was a much-needed innovation...
...Ensure survivabilitY—This rationale applies t tests of weapons' effects on military hardware...
...This makes us less likely to take a hair-trigger, launch-on-warning stance during a crisis...
...DOE's intransigence deserves most of the blame, but the format of the standards mandated by Congress hasn't helped much...
...The first set of standards are just now going into effect, and they are so weak that many appliances on the market already satisfy them...
...and carbon and sulphur dioxide emissions will decrease...
...Moore began the first program under the initiaPeter Gray is an economist at the Environmental Law Institute...
...Moore started by announcing "the first policy initiative of its kind in a decade," then said, ". . . energy efficiency and renewables [are] the cleanest, cheapest, safest means of meeting our nation's needs in the 1990s and beyond...
...How will you get building contractors to buy them...
...Certainly not because they are comfortably `ahead" of us...
...cied paper...
...As a result, several plants, or major sections of plants, have shut down and will never restart...
...About once each month, another test bomb is exploded, and within a few days a subsidence crater up to a thousand feet in diameter appears on the surface...
...A middle-aged, somewhat shy man in tan coveralls with an oval name patch sewn on the chest came in with an assistant, a ladder, and a set of hand tools...
...There is disagreement among atmospheric scientists over how far and how fast global warming will progress but little controversy over whether it will happen...
...But the budget document was a letdown for those who had heard Watkins and Moore say, "Any budget that doesn't make conservation and renewables a top priority won't be credible to Congress, and it won't be credible to the American people...
...We can devise incentives to decrease energy consumption and to shift toward low-carbon fuels...
...The above paragraph sounds like an argument for a U.S...
...And then it will take several years to break even...
...If the public has a chance to talk with Watkins about nuclear testing, we want to ask him why we can't do witho uUtT it may the Soviets can...
...We've been talking about it for a decade...
...Modernization—Now we're getting: to the nub: catching up with the Soviets...
...I don't get to see and heft one before purchase, and have to wait six weeks for delivery...
...She cites the example of wind turbines, which she says are killing several dozen eagles per year in California...
...updating millions of fixtures will take decades...
...a ot uCt th hso"°e uatell s. house...
...Watkins has repeatedly said that the environment, health, and safety will be top priorities at the weapons plants...
...There probably ought to be a mushroom cloud on the department letterhead...
...By 1988, more than twice as much money was going into weapons as into the rest of DOE programs combined...
...A rational energy policy would level the playing field by making prices reflect environmental costs...
...Or is it catching up with where the Soviets might be five yearsf roomm now iif we didn't keep running ahead of them...
...On February 1, 1990, an appeal from the Soviet parliament iin favor of a comprehensive test ban was read into the Congressional Record by SenaMitchell...
...Its weapons branch had long been the most powerful, not to mention the most immune to public scrutiny...
...But few of these great things are likely to be done through DOE as long as the department is dominated by business-as-usual weapons production...
...The average electricity harvest tops $2,000 per acre, five times the yield of prime midwestern corn land—and wind farms are also used for ranching...
...It's no wonder there are nuclear test site pictures in these offices...
...I sat on hold, waiting to find someone who had even heard of the devices...
...energy consumption will drop by 14 percent of imported oil...
...Watkins has called Stuntz his "right-hand person for strategy development," and during the past year she has organized a series of public "energy strategy hearings" around the country...
...There's no need to wait for the 1991 budget...
...We support efforts by the private sector to develop alternative energy sources that are economically viable in the nation's competitive marketplace...
...Since 1973, efficiency has displaced seven times as much energy as new nuclear reactors have supplied, at costs five to ten times lower...
...Schlesinger's attitude fit this ethos to a T; according to Hobson, with him it was, "If you just leave me alone, I will take care of the problem...
...instead, it was a time of missed opportunity...
...topay almost half o More to the point, the entire combined R&D udget for efficiency, conservation, and renewable energyf,r from the 1h989 level, could be funded for 25 years m each year's savings...
...average residential rate...
...we should acknowledge the health and weapons proliferation implications...
...Finally, Watkins resembles Gorbachev in that his actions may have consequences far beyond his intentions...
...those costs should be taken into account...
...The answer should be a firm "No" (see "Bombs are not Bright . . . ," below...
...DOE's first secretary was James R. Schlesinger, previously head of the CIA, and later secretary of defense...
...Actually, it's mostly hawks, but fair is fair...
...The department's budget pie-diagram is full of new euphemisms...
...Lean, mean, and clean Since 1973, efficiency gains in energy consumption have saved us about $1.5 trillion in energy bills...
...It's easy enough to put all that off for a few more days...
...cates: the State Department, the Pentagon, v°1987 by three of nuclear testing 's strongestn,dand DOE...
...Not when they've tested 641 bombs our 942...
...in the meantime, DOE has spent more and more of its time and money not on creative approaches to this mess but on...
...Emphasis added...
...A few days before Reagan's 1981 inauguration, the agency issued standards on nine appliance types...
...So we're all wealthier and freer than we would have been...
...But simulations have been developed toBmeismidies,a the major effects of nuclear explosion mimic all weapon's capability to survive is desirable primarily if one plans to fight a protracted nuclear something that even Ronald Reagan has characWt earr, ized as "unwinnable...
...to correct problems with head on the Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile that, if left ,uncorrected, could have neutralized out sea-based deterrent...
...Even during a test, the site looks as peaceful as the scene on the wall...
...Department of Energy R&D funding for renewables in 1990 is 8 percent of the total for nuclear and fossil...
...We have begun a global experiment that we cannot expect to back out of...
...Savings would exceed $7 billion annually —enough toa aim DOE's entire budget...
...Federal investment of $336 million over a decade will return cash savings of 95-to-1...
...According to Hobson, this is why: "We knew that Reagan's campaign did not fully realize that the weapons system was a major part of DOE...
...now is the time to do something about it...
...One more visit to DOE's desert photo: Using currently operating solar technology, DOE's Nevada Test Site could replace 70 typical nuclear power plants...
...Moore expressed confidence in the market to put all things right...
...It shows an affinity for the expensive pipe dreams of contractors— a hazard Energy must navigate around...
...Meanwhile, estimates of environmental damage from fossil fuels are in the $100-billion-per-year range...
...Like employee ars on th ' one e Ightbulb manufacturers, ding et but they aren t makes compact -e who I the', phone may Y be on the real 'r -thni places , wiI;had w. an nddth-ieay, earns n m confirme m as°ay bother or I ntesr, tbo.nitsieniw o_ _aesnneeble t°-cfnintad° most . ost peo is, 1,m I sold in _ cepuelrdeent _ e of return...
...I finally ordered three of them, but—this brings e to the second reason it took so long--they cost a pop...
...Titled "U .S...
...Why do we add a new crater, costing tens of m lions of dollars, to the Ne vada month...
...So between the time the problem was identified and when it was corrected, our deterrent may have been weaker, but it was testing that made it that way...
...Conservatio eet-' ineterest, ceilPt ineu1°rw trhsv'3s monthly loa t6nawtpayments, on typfolociar a power, t °ad41isc,ti utilities...
...His lack of military background kept him from influencing weapons policy, and he soon made enemies in the established energy industries...
...Something like that, To support this ration 1 it necessary ac knowledge that the Soviets are behind us head design and to assert that if we both stopped they could suddenly restart and leap ahead of us at the same time, it is necessary to claim that older weapons are more threatening than new ones but that modernization (by Soviets) is even more threatening than if they lag behind...
...products weeks aft er somewhat, well Friendly on g. Printed I c 11 . - . laiddwith nted on called, they Pact fluorescents yupscale prices...
...and they last 10 times g Ion er Over theirlifetimes tsss l oo k bulbs can cut lighting e.nsis in half...
...Actuiia,olliyly, iI_'mmittndoettis.° Y shortsighted...
...some fixtures won't hold them...
...For the nth time, the USSR has dsaid it ill end testing if we will...
...The findings have torn holes in the already frayed secrecy curtains that had hidden Rocky Flats, Fernald, Savannah River, Hanford, and a dozen others from view...
...Solar-thermal electric power is available right now to 400,000 people in Southern California at costs converging on the U.S...
...Bombs thatfit inside six-inch artillery shells...
...One hint comes from the many industrialized democracies that are up to twice as energy efficient in various economic sectors as we are...
...A deterrent works not because all bombs are 100 percent reliable, but because an opponent can't be certain that they are not reliable...
...Lowemissivity glass also came out of government labs, and it can reduce energy loss to a point where windows rival insulated walls...
...Watkins's support of Aegis and SDI is not an irrelevant curiosity from his recent past...
...Strengthening National Defense" is set at $9.2 billion—with $8.5 billion for nuclear weapons—up 11 percent from 1990...
...A tax on fuels in proportion to their carbon content will put the incentives where they belong...
...But if we hadn't tested, we couldn't have known and neither could the Soviets...
...We have a bewildering array of warheads, delivery systems, and acronyms, each faster, more efficient, and more accurate than the last, and each absolutely essential to deterrence...
...The secretary says he has heard repeatedly that what people want and believe in is conservation and renewable energy...
...But taxpayers should insist on a package deal: 1) responsible and vigorous oversight every step of the way...
...That's why I propose replacing only half our incandescents...
...Rational policy must be capable of estimating the full range of foreseeable costs and benefits from every known energy source...
...A drawback to the new bulbs is that they are ore bulky...
...On the other hand, there are huge potential markets for wind and solar energy, and they could provide a way for the U.S...
...could eventually put the Energy department back in'the energy business...
...armed for this purpose...
...All these exceptions may fall soon...
...Despite its long string of broken promises, nuclear may someday be part of the answer, and it may deserve further R&D funding...
...This rationale has an Aliee-trWi onderland quality, but it is trotted outregularly.' By now we have a good handle on bomb shelf life, and new components can be manufactured using the original blueprints...
...Here's where Watkins's amalgam of inside knowledge and high ethical standards could change the basic rules...
...Power lines DOE's progress could eventually lead to something resembling "rational energy policy...
...and 4) DOE must guarantee that nuclear power will not be used as a source of weapon material...
...Due largely to efficiency gains made during the preceding decade, the past five years were a respite from energy anxiety...
...There are other things we could do with $10 billion a year...
...does not need to fear sacrificing its economy with a unilateral carbon tax...
...Like Gorbachev's, his vision may be limited by his having risen through a secret society—the very path that makes him so effective...
...The words "Energy Policy" arouse fears—especially among those who make their livings from fossil and nuclear fuels—that established energy producers will be robbed in order to subsidize alternative sources unfairly...
...g hy rse, a f them In six The for the and em you can months, '"e bulbs e c°man receive and , s pay leeeive "a by investing return of $408 a year...
...It may sound ridiculous, but there I sat, watching this dog-and-pony show, contemplating the possibility that DOE after a decade of neglect might begin to do something to benefit the country and improve the health of the planet, and tears were coming to my eyes...
...To evada desert each month 0 find out, I reviewed statements put out since...
...Contractors probably won't get out of bomb building and into sustainable energy as long as they eat at the lavish trough provided through protection from scrutiny...
...The justifications come in four flavors Improve safety and security—This refers :to de vices that "prevent accidental detonationonr s thorized use of nuclear weapons" (by tteerrorists, for example...
...Secrecy prevented outside oversight or regulation, while internal supervision of the contractors, who constituted 90 percent of DOE's workforce, was lax at best...
...His disdain for regulation, especially environmental regulation, was matched only by his absolute trust in business...
...At all of the facilities, health and safety practices were poor, and many records were altered or destroyed...
...A June 1989 brochure, "We°hy D goive it Need Nuclear Testing...
...Imagine that...
...used by the Soviets, the more familiar "first strike" would apply...
...At the January 26 press conference, I asked Moore whether DOE expects attacks from the coal, oil, and nuclear industries, and how he plans to respond...
...e several I After spending market ighted...
Vol. 22 • April 1990 • No. 3
