"CLASSIFIED" FUEL HEATS THE PENTAGON". According to a report in the November 18, 1977 Wall Street Joural, the Department of Defense now obtains 25% of the steam needed to meet the Pentagon's space-and water-heating needs from a new incinerator that burns classified materials (computer printouts, films, etc.). DOD officials estimate that the incinerator-which consumes up to 10 tons of refuse per day-will pay for itself in 18 months.
UTILITY SPIES ON CRITICS. In 1973 (says The Atlanta Journal), the Georgia Power Company created a special "investigative" unit (with an annual budget of $750,000) to carry out covert surveillance of "subversive" individuals and groups ... among them the Sierra Club, Ralph Nader's Congress Project, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Sierra Club and ACLU officials are urging an investigation by the Public Service Commission. (Note: If you think that you or your group are being spied on, contact the Campaign to Stop Government Spying, 201 Massachusetts Ave. N.E., No. 112, Washington, D.C. 20002.)
NO NEED FOR SERI? The General Accounting Office-in a recent letter to Representative Mike McCormick's (DWash.) subcommittee on advanced energy technologies-questioned the need for the newly established Solar Energy Research Institute of Golden, Colorado. The GAO letter criticizes the Energy Research and Development Administration for not having located SERI at one of its existing solar research facilities (such as Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena) and recommends that Congress fund SERI at a reduced level until the need for such an Institute can be established.
THE DAY OF THE HYDROGEN-POWERED AUTOMOBILE IS AT HAND: Billings Energy Research Corporation (P.O. Box 555, Provo, Utah 84601) has begun limited production of specially modified Datsun B210's which run on the hydrogen stored in a patented metal hydride fuel tank. The car's operating cost is said to be only 1 cents per mile for fuel. Price: $20,000 . . . for the converted vehicle and the hydrolyzer that supplies it with fuel.
OLD TIRES ARE BEING RECYCLED INTO OIL by the Tosco Corporation (near Denver), according to a report in the November 4, 1977 High Country News ($12/25 issues from Box K, Lander, Wyo. 82520). Tosco says that a ton of tires yields about $38 worth of oil, $60 of carbon black, and $2.00 of scrap steel. The firm's tire-to-oil pilot plant was built jointly by Tosco Corp. and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
THE MOST UPBEAT AND NON-CONTROVERSIAL PRO-ENVIRONMENT CAMPAIGN TO COME ALONG in years: That's how the organizers of Sun Day bill the upcoming May 3 celebration, the purpose of which is "to educate the public ... and help promote an energy transition from petroleum to safe, non-polluting, onsite sources". Former Environmental Action Foundation director Richard Munson (who is devoting full time now to the "holiday's" planning) says, "Once Sun Day has happened, Congress will have to take solar power seriously." For more information about Sun Day, send a BASE (a dollar or two to cover expenses would be nice also) to Solar Action, Room 1100, 1028 Connecticut Ave., Washington, D.C. 20036.
BUFFALO TO HARNESS WIND POWER? City officials in Buffalo, N.Y. are reportedly investigating the use of wind energy to power a six-mile-long light rail transit system through the city, a waterfront naval museum complex, and parts of the grape-cultivation and harvesting industries south of town. Daily windspeed for Buffalo averages 12.3 mph, making it one of three regions of the U.S. with consistently high wind velocities (the two others being the Great Plains region and the New England coast).
DENIS HAYES'S LONG-AWAITED NEW BOOK, RAYS OF HOPE: The Transition to a Post-Petroleum World is finally out . . . and-like his Worldwatch Institute papers (some of which form chapters of the book)-it's a real winner. Hayes (coordinator of the first Earth Day and the driving force behind this year's Sun Day) knows a good deal more about alternative energy technologies and their history than many so called energy "experts" do, and it shows in the pages of this book. You can obtain Rays of Hope from any good bookstore, or direct from W.W. Norton & Co., 500 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10036 for $9.95 (plus 75 cents postage and handling).
DRINK UP: IT'S SOLAR. Officials of the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Jacksonville, Florida say that a solar water-heating system (now being installed at the plant) will be used in the pasteurization of their bottled beer .... A recent survey by Wood'N Energy ($5.00/12 issues from 5 S. State St., Concord, N.H. 03301) shows that WOOD STOVE PRODUCTION IN THE U.S. INCREASED 200% in 1977 .... Windworks, Inc. of Mukwonago, Wisconsin has been awarded a $388,000, 30-month contract by ERDA (now the Department of Energy) to develop an ADVANCED 8-KILOWATT WINDPLANT SUITABLE FOR FARM AND HOME USE. The finished machine is expected to have a blade diameter of 29 feet .... An overwhelming majority (83%) of the 11,000 Vermont residents polled recently by Rep. James Jeffords (R-Vt.) said they favored INTENSIFIED DEVELOPMENT OF SOLAR ENERGY.
Only 29% voted for "continued major investment in development of nuclear power The Nuclear Regulatory Commission late last year ordered A SHUTDOWN OF GENERAL ELECTRIC'S 50-MEGAWATT VALLECITOS NUCLEAR REACTOR at Pleasanton, California when it was discovered that two offshoots of the Verona earth quake fault pass directly beneath the plant .... The U.S. Department of Energy has ordered Getty Oil Company to pay more than $85 million to the U.S. Treasury because of OVERCHARGES BASED ON FOREIGN OIL EX-CHANGES ... Interested in solar energy equipment? You'll find tons of it in A-Z SOLAR PRODUCTS' NEW "SOLAR ENERGY CATALOG". To obtain a copy, send $1.00 (refundable on your first $10 order) to A-Z at 200 E. 26th St., Minneapolis, Minn. 55404.
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