TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. In a study based on data filed by the utilities themselves, the Environmental Action Foundation and the National Consumer Information Center found that electric utilities charged users $2.2 billion for federal taxes in 1975, but paid only $728 million to the Internal Revenue Service ... a net overcharge of $1.5 billion. Out of 150 companies surveyed by EAF and NCIC, 134 charged customers for more taxes than were actually paid, while 43 companies paid no federal income tax at all. For a copy of the EAF/NCIC report-entitled Phantom Taxes in Your Electric Bill -send $2.50 to: Environmental Action Foundation, 724 DuPont Circle Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20036.
ERDA SELECTS SITE FOR FIRST 200-KW WINDPLANT. Clayton, New Mexico (pop. 3,000) has been chosen by the Energy Research and Development Administration to receive the first of four large wind turbines to be built by ERDA around the country. When it begins operation later this year, the 200-kilowatt Clayton wind generator (an enlarged version of the NASA windplant at Sandusky, Ohio) will be the biggest such device to feed a utility grid since the famous Smith-Putnam windmill (at Grandpa's Knob, Vermont) of the 1940's.
TOLL-FREE SOLAR HOTLINE. The National Solar Heating and Cooling Information Center (Box 1607, Rockville, Md. 20850) now has a toll-free number to call for solar energy information: It's (800) 523-2929. (In Pennsylvania, dial 800-462-4983.) The folks at the Center have a vast library of solar energy literature at their fingertips and say that if they can't find the answer to your question, they'll refer you to someone who can.
BRAZIL TO BURN GASOHOL BY 1980. At $1.75 per gallon, Brazilian gasoline is among the highest-priced in the world ... which is why that country's government has embarked on a $420 million program to produce enough ethanol from domestically grown sugar cane and manioc to supply 20% of the country's auto fuel needs (in the form of a 20/80 alcohol-gasoline blend) by 1980. The urgency of the situation is underscored by the fact that Brazil now spends $4 billion per year-out of a $6 billion per year balance-of-payments deficit-for imported oil.
THE DESIGN, THEORY, AND USE OF SOLAR-ASSISTED HEAT PUMPS is discussed in semi-technical detail in ERDA Document C00-2560-1, Solar Energy Heat Pump Systems for Heating and Cooling Buildings. If the sidebar on page 99 of this magazine left you hungry for more heat pump info ... you'll find plenty of it in the 32 copiously illustrated chapters of this large (8-1/2 X 11), 248-page manual. To obtain a copy, send $8.00 to the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Va. 22161.
NEW ENERGY GIANT. The largest corporate merger in U.S. history took place last December 15 when Utah International, Inc., combined with the General Electric Company. The Justice Department at first objected to the marriage because of its "probable anticompetitive impact" ... but quickly withdrew its objections when the firms agreed to keep Utah International's uranium business out of G.E.'s control until the end of the century.
$100 MILLION SOLAR-ELECTRIC PLANT SLATED FOR CALIFORNIA DESERT. Southern California Edison Company and ERDA have announced plans to construct a 10-megawatt electric generating station (to be powered by the sunlight failing on a 100-acre field of mirrors) near the desert town of Barstow, California. When it goes on line in 1981, the giant facility will be the first utility-tied solar-electric power plant in the U.S.
NUCLEAR PLANT OPERATORS FINED. The Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCO) has been fined $32,500 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for making seven "material false statements" concerning the presence of a geologic fault beneath its North Anna nuclear power plant. The facility-now under construction-lies 75 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.
W.A. SHURCLIFF ANNOUNCES FINAL SOLAR BUILDING DIRECTORY, The just-released 13th Edition of Solar Heated Buildings. A Brief Survey-which contains more pages (306), more listings (319), and more photos (85) than ever before-will, according to author William A. Shurcliff, be the very last. "Any future comprehensive survey of solar buildings," Shurcliff explains, "would be too long, too expensive." Copies of the nearly inch-thick manual are now available for $12 postpaid from W.A. Shurcliff, 19 Appleton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138. Better act quickly, however ... this one's destined to become a collector's item.
EVIDENTLY IMPRESSED BY PRESIDENT CARTER'S stand on nuclear proliferation, France has elected to halt sales of nuclear fuel reprocessing plants to foreign countries .... Meanwhile, 13 nations-Austria, Belgium, Denmark, West Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, and the U.S.-have signed a SOLAR ENERGY PACT for the purpose of pooling solar energy know-how (and-ultimately-effecting a reduction in the countries' need for imported oil) .... Scientists at the University of Delaware have developed a CADMIUM SULFIDE SOLAR-ELECTRIC CELL that costs only $1.12 per square meter and is 7.8% efficient, a breakthrough that ERDA Assistant Administrator Robert J. Hirsch says has put the U.S. solar-electric program well on its way to meeting a 1980 goal of cells with 10% efficiency .... What may be the LARGEST WINDMILL IN THE WORLD is now under construction in the college community of Tvind, Denmark. When finished, the Tvind plant is expected to generate 3.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year .... The Energy Research and Development Administration is predicting that MATERIALS AND INSTALLATION COSTS FOR SOLAR HEATING SYSTEMS MAY DROP 50% BY 1980. If they do, says Henry H. Marvin (director of ERDA's Solar Energy Division), "solar heat would be economically competitive with all fuels-including natural gas-in most regions" The Oregon Department of Energy (528 Cottage St. N.E., Salem, Ore. 97310) is offering an almanac-like FAMILY ENERGY WATCH CALENDAR that's large, attractively produced, and jampacked with solid how-to info designed to help families save money on their energy bills. Price $1.50 postpaid.
|
|
|
|