From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Subject: The Decline of America: Short-Term Profit over Long-Term Good
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 16:00:12 GMT

The Decline of America: Short-Term Profit over Long-Term Good


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cost to build a mile of urban highway:          $100 million;
cost to build a mile of light rail mass transit:$ 15 million;

change in federal funding for mass transit
        from 1981 to 1989:                      -50%  <----
reduction in Department of Energy budget for
        renewable energy between 1981 and 1989:  90%  <----
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[Excerpted from "Blood is Thicker than Oil;" see the file "briefs";
originally published: In These Times, Sept. 19-25, 1990]

==================================================================
An interesting table on efficiencies (Recall this is Fall '89 issue):

                Car    Home     Refrigerator    Gas Furnace    A/C
===================================================================
Model Average   18      190         4               210         10
New Model Avg   27      110         3               180          7
Best Model      50       68         2               140          5
Best Prototype  77       11         1               110          3
===================================================================

    Car:            Miles/Gallon;
    Home:           Thousand Joules/Sq. Meter;
    Refrigerator:   Kilowatt-Hours/day;
    Gas Furnace:    Million Joules/Day;
    Air Conditioner:Kilowatt-Hours/Day

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Gathered from Scientific American's Special Issue, Sept. '89
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==================================================================

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     L E V E L I N G   T H E   " P L A Y I N G   F I E L D "
     -------------------------------------------------------

Renewable energy sources are forced to compete in a rigged market
because our economic system fails to account for the
environmental and social damage caused by energy technologies.
These "external" costs -- such as the acid rain and air pollution
caused by coal burning -- are not included in the prices we pay
for fossil fuels. This means that relatively harmful energy
sources, like coal, are given an unfair market advantage over
relatively benign sources, like wind power. If the hidden costs
of energy technologies were included in their price -- rather
than in our taxes and health-insurance costs -- renewable-energy
technologies would be in a far better position to compete with
their conventional counterparts.

The playing field can be at least partially leveled through the
utility rate-setting procedure (where the "external" costs would
be "internalized"); by federal and state support, whether direct
or through tax credits, to bring down the costs of renewable
energy sources; and by modest taxes on the use of fossil fuels.

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   E N C O U R A G I N G   P R I V A T E   I N V E S T M E N T
   -----------------------------------------------------------

 The short-term focus that has run rampant in American industry
and financial circles also places renewable energy sources at a
disadvantage. The high initial costs of solar collectors, wind
turbines, and other renewable technologies make them more
expensive than conventional technologies in the short term, even
though their costs in the long run are likely to be lower.

These barriers can be lowered by the use of tax credits for
renewable-energy investments and by educational programs on the
federal, state, and local levels.

EXCERPTED FROM:

                      =====================
                      C o o l   E n e r g y
                      =====================
           "The Renewable Solution to Global Warming"

         A pamphlet by the Union of Concerned Scientists
             (See bottom for membership information)

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