Energy

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 177 power plant economical in the power range needed for road vehicles. For portable energy storage the tankful of gasoline is going to be hard to beat, and for energy conversion the gasoline engine is so far ahead of the competition in specific power and economy that investment in development ofalternative forms of power is hard tojustify, except as a public-relations gesture. The book is a very expensive paperback with good illustrations but cheap typewriter composition, occasional misprints, and an index that is not very helpful. Lynwood Bryant* Energy: Future Alternatives and Risks. Academy Forum, National Academy of Sciences. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Co., 1974. Pp. ix+227. $10.50. A Time to Choose: America’s Energy Future. Energy Policy Project of the Ford Foundation. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Co., 1974. Pp. xii+511. $10.95 (clothbound); $3.95 (paperbound). The outpouring of books on American energy policy triggered by the “energy crisis” continues at an accelerating pace. Although pro­ fessing to offer value-free analyses and explanations of the fuel shortages, potential energy sources, and a myriad of other intercon­ nected issues, several of these authors have in fact been spokesmen for and advocates of particular interests, including oil corporations, utility companies, environmental organizations, government regula­ tory agencies, and the like. As with most other controversial problems, energy-related literature is surrounded by contradictory scientific and technological “facts,” the latter often depending on objectives sought and questions asked. Moreover, the scope and possible economic, technical, and political solutions of energy problems are often treated within limited parameters and conventional assumptions and foci: the inextricable links among economic growth (often in terms of GNP), standard of living, and increasing energy consumption; exploration of negative impacts of environmental policies on potential energy sources, rather than impingement of energy imperatives on environ­ mental quality; and especially, emphasis on efficiency and market incentives rather than on equity and social responsibility. Energy: Future Alternatives and Risks is subject to much of the aforementioned limitations. It consists of prepared papers and ad hoc *Mr, Bryant, professor emeritus of history at Massachusetts Institute of Technol­ ogy, is now visiting research scholar at the Eleutherian Mills Historical Foundation. He is the author of numerous scholarly studies on the history of the internal-combustion engine. 178 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE comments by Academy Forum scientists, government officials, and special interest representatives at a two-day symposium of the Na­ tional Academy of Sciences in January 1974. The book is divided into six parts, corresponding to six propositions that are discussed and debated. These include (1) U.S. fossil-fuel reserves will be adequate until the year 2000, (2) conservation will balance supply and demand, (3) environmental controls will impede the supply of energy, (4) new institutional structures are needed to serve public and private in­ terests, (5) the bases of government, regulations are fragmented and inadequate, and (6) the greatest crisis in the energy problem may come in choosing compatible technologies and life-styles. Attempts to explore divergent issues, often more crucial and insightful than the given propositions, are generally curtailed in order “to keep the meet­ ing on track.” The speakers concluded that there is enough domestic oil, gas, and coal to satisfy our energy “needs” until at least the year 2000. Market incentives, especially higher fuel prices, are stressed as a necessary means both for inducing industry to extract available fossil fuels and for reducing individual consumption, while the environmental and social impacts of obtaining resources are not examined. Much of the debate surrounding the first proposition appears to be on an elemen­ tary level, providing little in the way of serious analysis. Discussion of the second proposition is equally disappointing. For example, long-run reductions in demand are linked to an inevitable unemployment problem, without probing the basis of this assump­ tion. One participant argued that conservation will not reduce de­ mand but will promote full cost pricing in the face of rising demands; the ramifications of this are ignored. Because of their essential agree­ ment on this proposition, debate among the speakers was often contrived and trivial. The book is at its weakest in debating the third

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