Solving the Power Problem

According to the U.S. Office of Emergency Preparedness, much of the nation faces a shortage of electricity this summer. Power failures may afflict Chicago, St. Louis and Minneapolis-St. Paul, plus most of the Eastern Seaboard from New York to Georgia. All these areas can expect regular "brownouts"--voltage reductions that dim lights, slow the whir of air conditioners to a whisper and obscure TV pictures with blizzards of snow.

The prediction has already been confirmed in embarrassing ways. Early this month, after mustering power-company executives to discuss the problem, New York State's Public Service Commission in Albany found itself literally powerless: a nearby transformer had failed. Shortly afterward, 2,500 leaders of the electric-utility industry were figuratively shocked at a conference in Boston when seven major turbines went out of service, causing all New England to lose 5% of its power supply.

Pull the Plug. In response to these warnings, President Nixon's adviser on consumer affairs, Mrs. Virginia H. Knauer, urged consumers to unplug refrigerators, freezers and electric stoves during brownouts: "This will prevent voltage irregularities from damaging your appliances." Moreover, the Nixon Administration is now considering a plan to reorganize the Atomic Energy Commission to deal exclusively with all forms of energy and to prevent future power shortages.

Power companies blame the problem on various unusual circumstances. For one, there is a shortage of both coal and available coal-carrying railroad cars. For another, natural gas--the best alternative fuel--is in even tighter supply. And, conservationists' lawsuits have slowed the construction of nuclear power plants, which may cause thermal pollution and radiation dangers. If such obstacles could be overcome, the companies imply, there would be no crisis. But there is far more to the problem.

Often spurred by the utilities' own advertising campaigns, Americans are so avid for laborsaving machines that power output now doubles every ten years to meet demand. By the end of the century, some experts say, the nation's electricity requirements may well rise sixfold. Worse, the kilowatt craze poses serious problems not only for power companies but also for nature and human health.

Consider this scenario for the year 2000, drawn by the scientists of the St. Louis-based Committee for Environmental Information. Should present trends continue, they say, "power plants of all kinds would produce roughly enough heat to raise by 20DEG the total volume of water which runs over the surface of the U.S. in a year." The devastating effect of that hot water on man and nature, the scientists did not bother to describe. But half those plants (running on conventional fuels) would gush 8.75 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year--enough to change the globe's climate. The other half (nuclear powered) would increase the level of background radiation by as much as 2% a year--enough to have "unforeseeable effects on the world's living things, including man."

Another noxious effluent of power plants is sulfur oxide, a key air pollutant that has been linked with respiratory ailments in man. After studying the SOL, problem, a panel of industrial engineers and chemists from the National Academy of Engineering of the National Research Council glumly reported: "Contrary to widely held opinions, commercially proven technology available for control of sulfur oxides from combustion processes does not exist." If no immediate action is taken, the engineers added, the amount of sulfur in the air will increase more than fourfold by the end of the century.

New Approach. The engineers urge Government and industry to develop new techniques to remove or recapture most sulfur before it leaves the stacks. Even these improvements may do little more than hold the amount of sulfur oxides in the air to present levels. As the experts see it, the U.S. should create SO-free fuels--for which consumers would duly pay more.

The real need is for a "wholly new approach," says the Northern Environmental Council, which comprises 21 conservation and civic groups in the upper Midwest. The council recommends an ad campaign urging citizens to reduce power demands by turning off unnecessary lights. It also wants to link the Midwest's power resources with those of the Missouri Valley and the Pacific Northwest. Thus power could be shunted back and forth to meet peak load requirements in the three regions--each of which lies in a different time zone. Finally, the council suggests revising the formulas for determining the price of power so that the more electricity a consumer uses, the more he pays. At present most utilities reduce rates for big users.

Even bigger changes are proposed by the Committee for Environmental Information. Its scientists note that industry uses 41% of the nation's electricity; homes and commercial users split 49% (the other 10% is lost in transmission). If the industrial uses were revamped, the scientists argue, there would be ample power for everybody.

Back to Tin Cans. According to the scientists, metal production is the place to start. Steel, for example, should replace aluminum wherever possible. Statistics give the reason: making a ton of aluminum takes 17,000 kw-h of power, while a ton of steel requires only 2,700 kwh. In addition, steel products, especially cars, could be redesigned for easier and fuller reuse. To reclaim a ton of scrap steel in an electric furnace requires only 700 kwh. Another plus for steel would be a return to "tin" (mostly steel) cans that rust away, compared with aluminum cans that last and litter the landscape for decades.

The scientists point to other products that consume vast amounts of power and have unfortunate side effects--for example, the serious water pollution that is caused by runoff from nitrogen fertilizer and the manufacture of pulp and paper. Instead of throwing away paper, which accounts for 80% of the trash disposal problem, Americans should reprocess it to make more paper and save power as well. Meantime, alternate sources of energy should be harnessed as quickly as possible. They could include nuclear fusion, sunlight, even the earth's own heat.

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