Who Owns the Sun?: People, Politics, and the Struggle for a Solar Economy - Softcover

Berman, Daniel M.; O'Connor, John T.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 189013208X ISBN 13: 9781890132088

Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co, 1997

Synopsis

In Who Owns the Sun? Daniel Berman and John O'Connor argue that democratic control of solar energy is the key to revitalizing America -- putting power back into the hands of local people. A decentralized solar economy will bring thousands of new jobs to local communities that would no longer be exporting millions of energy dollars every year to transnational corporations and oil cartels.In an era when the rules of the energy game are changing -- as legislatures and public utility commissions experiment with retail wheeling and other forms of deregulation -- citizens need to create new ways to govern energy to avoid becoming sharecroppers of the sun that rightfully belongs to everyone.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

An impassioned, well-defended argument for solar power in the place of our current fossil-fuel-based economy. Two decades ago, environmentalists Berman and O'Connor write, Jimmy Carter installed a solar water heater on the White House roof, donned a cardigan, and announced that the ongoing energy crisis was ``the moral equivalent of war.'' One of Ronald Reagan's first acts as president, however, was to order the heater removed, and during his tenure Department of Energy support for research into solar buildings fell from $100 million to just $1 million. The authors maintain that subsequent administrations have been no better at exploring alternative sources of energy, leading to imbroglios like the Gulf War. They trace this problem to a number of causes, not least the political influence of oil and utilities concerns, and they argue, as have many other writers, that we have an unhealthy addiction to fossil fuels and nuclear power. The authors are sometimes zealously simpleminded, as when they claim that the landlords of Hawaii oppose solar power because water heaters would be ``an extra maintenance hassle'' (and not, as may be the case, because such heaters are expensive to purchase and install). But drawing on the work of ``soft energy'' expert Amory Lovins, they demonstrate convincingly that converting to a solar- or mixed-energy economy would in the long run be profitable for all concerned, and certainly more environmentally sound. They offer reasoned suggestions as to how this conversion might be effected, including wedding microchip manufacture to photovoltaic production, because both use similar technologies; and they urge government agencies and private citizens alike to move ``renewable-energy issues into the mainstream political discourse.'' A thoughtful, provocative, and accessible book that should inspire much discussion in green circles. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

Environmental activists Berman and O'Connor offer a scathing explanation of why solar technology has played such an insignificant role in meeting America's energy needs. Politicians, utility companies and even many mainstream environmental groups come under attack for either their lack of leadership on this issue or for their downright hostility to solar possibilities. The authors argue convincingly that the impediment to widespread adoption of environmentally friendly energy sources is no longer technological but rather the fear that private utility companies' profit margins will suffer. Numerous examples of the ways in which renewable energy advances have been sabotaged by politicians and utilities are presented, as are a wide array of solutions. The most interesting solutions include public ownership of utilities, enlightened building codes favorable or at least neutral to solar technology, utility company buy-backs of excess electricity generated by homeowners, tax breaks for the installation of non-polluting sources of power, removal of massive governmental subsidies of fossil fuels and equalization of governmental research dollars for renewable and non-renewable sources of energy. Where such reforms are already in place, in the Netherlands and Israel, for example, solar energy is playing a very significant social role. This is a book likely to stir people to action.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 189013208X
• ISBN 13: 9781890132088
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 356