Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1992 14:33:31 EDT >From: Rick Crawford Subject: File 3--Enviro. Tech. Policy Saw this on the net and found much of it relevant to various efforts to develop an explicit national technology policy (vs. a default, pork-barrel-driven policy vacuum). -rick ++++++++++ >From--tgray@igc.apc.org (Tom Gray) Newsgroups--sci.environment Subject----Renewables Critical, Says WRI Date--2 Nov 92 15:49:00 GMT RENEWABLE ENERGY 'ENVIRONMENTALLY CRITICAL', SAYS NEW WRI REPORT Renewable energy technologies are part of a list of "environmentally critical" technologies that the federal government should support, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute, a Washington, DC, policy organization. The report, entitled Backs to the Future: U.S. Government Policy Toward Environmentally Critical Technology, was authored by George Heatton and Robert Repetto, and is billed by the Institute as "the first attempt in this country to define and identify areas of technological advance that would markedly reduce the environmental burdens of economic progress." The authors focus on government policy because it strongly influences the development of new technologies, "from research dollars and procurement decisions to infrastructure design and standard-setting," an Institute news release added. "Among the most promising environmental R&D areas," it said, " . . . are methods of non-fossil fuel energy production and use ... and hydrogen and other storage methods. Many such technologies, now in early stages of development, would yield large social returns from technical advances ... " Backs to the Future's recommendations, the release said, include the creating of a national research and development (R&D) institute, altering the missions of the national laboratories, and changing criteria for funding environmental R&D. Copies of Backs to the Future can be obtained for $9.95 plus $3 shipping and handling from WRI Publications, PO Box 4852, Hampden Station, Baltimore, MD 21211, USA, phone (800) 822-0504. ------------------------------ Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253