George
Oxford produced this guy.
Radically restructuring the electrical generating system was not on President
Carter's original agenda. But in 1976 Amory Lovins, already the youngest
faculty member in the history of Oxford and British representative of
Friends of the Earth, published "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" a
landmark article in Foreign Affairs, which argued that the root cause of the
problems was the centralized generation of electricity. Continuing to rely on
a far-flung grid, anchored by gigantic thermal plants, Lovins argued, was a
losing strategy. Too much energy was wasted in generation and
transmission, the energy that was delivered did not fit the scale of end-use,
fossil fuels would eventually run out, and the whole system was brittle,
complex, and vaguely inhuman. Instead there was an alternate future -- a
world of decentralized sources where small-scale generating stations were
matched to small-scale end uses. Following this "soft path" would mean: 1)
making spectacular but achievable gains in energy conservation, 2) building
small "co-generation" plants that produced both electricity and steam for
industrial heat, and 3) setting up a "transitional" period in which fossil fuels
would be employed until replaced by "soft" technologies such as solar, wind,
and small hydro. By 2025, we could be living in Energy Utopia -- a world
running entirely on renewable resources.
The argument was specifically aimed at nuclear power. Up to that point air
pollution and dwindling fossil fuels seemed to be pushing the nation toward
a nuclear future, supported by, among others, the Sierra Club. This was
wrong, Lovins argued. Nuclear technology would lead to terrorist bombs,
intractable wastes, the rule of a "nuclear priesthood" and huge hidden social
and environmental costs.
It is important to recognize that the two paths are mutually
exclusive. Because commitments to the first may foreclose the
second, we must soon choose one or the other -- before failure
to stop nuclear proliferation has foreclosed both.
Lovins's 1977 book Soft Energy Paths, first published by the Sierra Club,
became a minor best seller. When Lovins briefed Jimmy Carter on energy
at the White House in 1978, he found the president had already read the
book. A cover story in New Times called Lovins "The Pied Piper of
Alternative Energy." |
