SALUSTRA--sustainable alternative technologies.

PREFACE

Why Salustra?

It is said in ancient mythology that the vast and extremely advanced civilization of Atlantis switched from environmentally destructive fossil fuels to renewables, with geomagnetic and solar energy being predominant. SALUSTRA (sal-OO-struh) is the name of who is believed by some to have been the Empress who reigned during the last days ofAtlantis. She was immensely intelligent and beautiful, and, being loyalto her people, despised the corruption and waste that led to theinternal degradation of Atlantis. Also during her reign, the atmosphere grew increasingly unstable and murky as industrial pollution and fallout from nuclear tests being generated in the less advanced societies of the north enshrouded the planet. Corruption and an endemic energy crisis,combined with unexplained violent seismic upheavals are believed to have led to the destruction of the Atlantean civilization. The conditions that occurred in myth those many millennia ago are in someways similar to what face us today in reality. Hence the name of this project goes to a person who desperately tried to save her world.

All we truly have in this or any age is our dreams; dreams to grow, change, create. This particular phase in human history is one of crucial import. We have accumulated the power to upset any and all ecological systems on this planet . Our societies (particularly the industrial societies of the Northern Hemisphere), have developed on a course which brings us further from a sustainability with each passing minute. The resultant threat stems from the fact that ecological systems, like the human body, can only withstand a finite amount of stress in order for recovery to take place. The alternative is total impoverishment of the ecological system and a resultant drastic loss of biodiversity and population.

As an individual organism holds many analogies for a particular ecosystem, and an ecosystem can be held analogous to the entire biosphere (call it what you will--a massive ecosystem or a single organism). The laws of life cycling hold regardless of the particular scale of life you consider.

According to current research at Harvard University, the Earth is losing at least 140 species/day. This estimate is conservative-- some estimates place it more along the lines of 100 species/day. This rate of extinction is incresing exponentially as pollution and habitat destruction accelerate. The end resuld of this path we are taking is obvious. Complete ecological collapse, with a few hardy species low on the food chain surviving to be the progenitors of a new evolutionary age. Keep in mind that in the past when 50%-80% of all species were eliminated through climate upheavals, thes extinction periods covered several million years, and in all cases, the dominant species went first.

We are competing with the magnitude of the great extinction epochs in only a few decades' time. We have also, and rather arrogantly, assumed the position of dominant species. Think about it.

This threat of complete ecological breakdown is due to greed, ignorance, lack of foresight, and absence of vision. Many of us do not see the developing instability in the global system as readily as we see "the button." or some other immediate threats, such as which person on the street will be gunned down tomorrow, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, etc.

How do we prioritize our energies to eliminate the threats to our common future? We cannot bury our heads in the sand or rely on others to take the initiative, for time is not a luxury here. A suggestion may be to overcome one of the more intractable aspects of our society which has wrought havoc ecologically while at the same time building cohesion between people. This is what Salustra is about. You can see Salustra as holding ecology as an initial priority, given its angle of focus. This is not to say that social problems are regarded here as less important or meaningful.

A closer look at this list of social and ecological ills will yield the realization that there is no difference between ecological and social injustice in terms of the root causes. Salustra is an attempt at a root solution.

Such a solution to this building problem will take courage--courage to look inside ourselves and question what is important to us. Our minds must expand to grasp and create the alternatives we need to restore ecological balance. It has been said for centuries that as we divide ourselves from nature, we in turn create divisions between and within ourselves. If we fail to reevaluate and change our course, then our future lies in serious question. Those of us who have initiated the idea of SALUSTRA have incredible faith in the potential of humanity. We do believe that a healthy future is possible. We cannot accept the cynical view that nothing will improve. It is our intention that hope for our future and exuberance for life will reemerge in stride with SALUSTRA's implementation.

HISTORY

The idea of SALUSTRA was created in July, 1991, by David Pyles, who was coordinating outreach for COMMON GROUND, the third national student environmental conference hosted by the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC). The focus of SALUSTRA initially involved only college campuses in the U.S., and was to be included as an extension of SEAC's Campaign for Energy Independence, begun as a response to the National Energy Strategy. Through informal conversations with several of the other conference organizers, the focus shifted to low-income areas of the U.S. and the idea of the cooperative began here. It was also becoming evident that there was a need to consider SALUSTRA as an international project due to the need for global elimination of fossil fuel use. The entire SEAC National Council and coordinators of SEAC's international project were consulted throughout the rest of the summer. In addition, leaders of the National Green Movement and other grassroots environmental organizations were consulted. By the time of the SEAC conference in October, it had become known through the national grapevine that SALUSTRA was the most comprehensive specific plan of its kind in the American grassroots environmental movement. It had also become clear that the scope of SALUSTRA was tooIt had also become evident that SEAC would not be able to provide the organizational resources necessary to include SALUSTRA in its agenda at that time.

SALUSTRA will be a worldwide effort to build a grassroots energy policy based on conservation, solar and/or wind generated electricity, and solar electricity and/or hydrogen combustion for transportation. This plan is not to be thought of as a year long effort. Setting up viable pilot alternative energy projects will take years--a lot of hard, long, and even dangerous years to begin making a significant impact.

It is well understood that 20th century human activities, particularly energy intensive industrial activities, have significantly altered the chemical composition of the Earth's atmosphere. The only dispute in the scientific community is precisely how severely this will affect climate--how many more hurricanes there will be, how much the sea will rise, how many species will become extinct, how much agriculture will be harmed, etc. In fact. the Union of Concerned Scientists publicly announced in November, 1991, that if global emissions of greenhouse gases are not reduced by at least 70% by 2030, the world's climate faces a dramatic, perhaps irreversible upheaval on an unprecedented scale. There is good reason to pilot SALUSTRA in the U.S. The United States has 5% of the world's population, and yet it produces 25%-30% of the global anthropogenic flux of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (Stephen Schneider, Coevolution of Climate and Life). The U.S. has considerable economic and military influence internationally, and as a result, actions in the industrialized world which have significant environmental impacts are often influenced by U.S. Government decisions. One cooperative will be set up during the first year of implementation, then 5 the following year, and 10 the third pilot year. As soon as the pilot projects are developed to the extent that they can become models for international replication, mass implementation of this energy policy should reflect a three-pronged effort. That is, the initial focus should be in low-income and urban areas of the United States and Western Europe, Latin America and Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. The three subprojects will be called the Western Arm, Southern Arm, and Eastern Arm, respectively. At the completion of 6 independent SALUSTRA cooperatives in urban areas of the U.S., agencies, individuals, and governments outside the U.S. will be approached with proposals for the creation of solar cooperatives and mass transit vehicle conversion. Funding in the U.S. will come from sources outside the federal government until leadership exists that would support the efforts of SALUSTRA. There exists no known comprehensive plan other than SALUSTRA to rid the world of fossil fuel use to this day. There does exist the IEAE, an international organization of industrialized nations concerned with energy issues. Set up in response to the oil embargo of 1973, this organization seems to be geared toward energy security based on strategic oil reserves, market gerrymandering to keep petroleum prices minimal, and nominal efforts to build conservation policies. There is, though, a climate in this international governmental community which mildly supports pollution-free energy, and this would be stronger if there was a clearer vision on how to accomplish energy independence and greater knowledge of how feasible pollution-free alternatives are. However, there is also a significant bloc of petroleum exporters in the IEAE, which does shift the focus of policy debate toward the status quo.

The current U.S. administration has done nothing substantive to reverse the 'burying one's head in the sand' policies of the Reagan/Bush years. This is probably due to the current political climate of the country more than the personal whims of the Clinton Administration. Basically, it is highly unlikely that any reform-minded administration will get congress to pass a truly alternative energy policy within the next several decades. No, if anything, policies like the National Energy Strategy (NES) will emerge and give us little hope of improvement.

Recall that in National Energy Strategy (NES), only $32 million was allocated by the DOE in 1991 for Solar Energy research (nearly 1/10 that of the late 1970's) in the NES. Comparatively, more than $340 million was allocated to "clean coal technologies." It is important to keep in mind here that coal is by far the worst polluter of CO2 known, no matter how much energy is consumed to make it "clean." That is basic physics and chemistry. In addition, in excess of $250 million was allotted for nuclear fission, even though no one has developed sufficient capacity to deal with the radioactive waste whose half-lives extend beyond 10,000 years. Moreover, absolutely no money was allotted to enhance energy efficiency. There was also talk of opening up ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in the NES. According to the most optimistic geological reports, ANWR can produce at most 1 million barrels of oil per day for a period of less than 10 years (Dr. Kohl, Johns Hopkins/SAIS, personal comm. 4/91).The current consumption of oil in the U.S. is at least 18 million barrels/day (WorldWatch Inst., State of the World 1991). Though the ANWR proposal was stricken from NES in the 1991 congressional session, the rest of it remained virtually unchanged, and oil developers are promising to eventually push the ANWR opening through. SALUSTRA will work beyond short-term solutions and establish a sustainable future emphasizing renewable, non-polluting technology and social empowerment. An energy policy of this kind, if implemented successfully, can potentially bring about the following advantages:

Climatic stabilization-- a primary goal of this plan is to eliminate the further destabilization of Earth's climate without compromise through the use of renewable, pollution-free energy.
Political stabilization--there is sand virtually everywhere on the globe, so no area would have to import fossil fuels or risk military confrontation to ensure energy security.
Resource nonintensivity--solar panels last indefinitely without failure or loss of potency. In addition, engines that run on electricity or which combust hydrogen last considerably longer than gasoline/diesel engines because corrosive byproducts are virtually nonexistent. All of this and a more efficient transportation scheme would reduce resource extraction.
Solidarity--thousands of groups of people working together for a common goal know no politically divisive borders or hatred. People across the globe would gain hope for a better future as they see their own hands creating it.
Irrelevance of short-sighted governments--the NES and other ill- conceived strategies would become meaningless as the democratic implementation of SALUSTRA takes hold.
Employment--since the energy economy would become more decentralized, there would be more room for employment. Research done at Princeton University suggests that there would be twice as many people employed in the energy economy if we were to switch to solar electricity and hydrogen combustion.
Abatement of poverty and its symptoms--people in low-income areas which convert over to solar energy will find that they will spend less 1991 congressional session, the rest of on utilities and have more to spend on food, health, and education. In addition, they will gain independence and solidarity as they work to produce their own energy.
Organizing--since the thrust of this effort will come from the populace, multitudes of skills and knowledge concerning group action and change will be gained by many people, both enhancing positive change and eliminating apathy and cynicism.
Improved human health--people in the U.S. alone could save $ billions in health care costs by eliminating auto pollution. More importantly, positive health would increase as more people exercise in clean and healthy environments.
Ecological benefits--food production would increase by 5%-10% as crops would be undaunted by urban and industrial pollution plumes (WW Inst., Ibid.). Acid rain would be eliminated, thus removing one (but certainly not the only) serious threat to many of the world's remaining forest ecosystems. Sensitive ecosystems would also be spared from unnecessary oil/coal exploration and extraction.
The future--people would relearn how to think for the seventh generation and see that long-term goals and benefits are feasible and worthwhile.

This is a preliminary outline of some ideas on how organize the conversion of a group of one or more dwellings to solar electricity and energy independence. (Emphasis is placed on cooperation and the structure of individual working groups should be nonheirarchical. Since many of the problems that face us are related at their roots to the abuses of power, the success of the projects is tied to the abandonment of such hierarchical thinking). In addition, the reduction of auto/truck traffic and the conversion of mass transit vehicles from gasoline and diesel to hydrogen combustion and/or electricity shall be pursued. The projects are designed to be simple so that implementation and replication can proceed quickly in existing housing structures, since 80% of what people will live in over the next 40 years has already been built.

SALUSTRA is designed to empower us to actually create a comprehensive energy policy, rather than just relying on the legislative process for relatively weak initiatives. Hopefully, these pilot projects will be the catalyst this nation as well as the rest of the world needs to reduce the combustion of fossil fuels as much as possible. This program, if successful, will not only help to restore the global ecology, but it will also foster healthier, happier, and more self- reliant lifestyles. The goal of this project is to catalyze this conversion such that it will be well on its way within 20 years. The government won't do this, so we will--we must.

CONSERVATION

Energy conservation is the first priority. We have to break our addiction to eternally lit rooms, driving one block, running the air conditioning day and night, etc. Reducing energy consumption before installing solar panels is intelligent and will make them go much further. Currently, electric utilities support conservation, since they have no economic incentives to build more expensive baseload plants. Therefore, they are not encouraging consumption. These conditions are likely to change within the next several years, however, so time is of the essence. We will either use these companies' weatherization projects to aid in community conservation efforts or develop our own, depending on the location and circumstances. Energy conservation projects and outlines from various groups, such as the Student Environmental Action Coalition, the Univ. of Colorado Energy Policy, etc. will also be used to develop effective strategies. Energy conservation initiatives range from the simple to the extremely complex and expensive. The goal for SALUSTRA projects is to use simple and inexpensive techniques to reduce as much unnecessary energy consumption as possible. Fine-tuning energy conservation and grabbing at the proverbial extra 5% of energy conservation should come about later, considering that the yield would be small and the costs would be comaratively high.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Steering Committee

This committee is open to all people in the catalyst groups who wish facilitate information transfer from one location to another, to help guide general Salustra policies, etc. This body is not a static, closed group of elected officials who have command over the individual working groups (catalyst groups) or the cooperatives. It is, rather, a free coalition of highly committed people who collectively have the skills to guide the course of the overall effort by being there to assist individual groups and build cohesion. This cohesion will not only help groups get individual projects up and running, but will ensure that anyone who is in a public forum to convey the overriding message/rationale of the Salustra effort. Also, this communication will be necessary in times of crisis or unforseen conditions which require unity and quick, decisive actions.

Catalyst Groups

All people involved with seeking out likely communities/neighborhoods for conversion projects (the ones who do the legwork before a cooperative gets started) are referred to those in the catalyst groups. Typically, such catalyst groups should stay small and close- knit in the beginning stages of information gathering and coop mobilization. Three people establish a very good quorum, so keep that number in mind (as the catalyst group and the cooperative in that area begin to proceed with establishing the conversions, there will arise many specific tasks to grapple with. If some of these individual tasks become too large for one person to handle (and they will), then the catalyst group/cooperative coalition will be most effective if these tasks are parceled out evenly to working subgroups (again, 3 provides a good quorum).

The primary focus of each catalyst group will be to have some sort of online contact with the steering committee so that everyone can be in the know about each project. This will not only aid troubleshooting efforts, but it will add momentum to each group (good for overcoming obstacles, particularly, skeptics and other folk who can potentially be very helpful).

The Cooperatives

Low Income Areas

The fundamental unit of organization which will implement conservation, solar conversions, and other related efforts will be a neighborhood cooperative of anywhere between 20 and 50 homes in close proximity. A group of people representing the homes which join the cooperative will be the primary governing body of the cooperative and will be the facilitators of conservation, conversion, maintenance, and local replication. SALUSTRA will operate as a vehicle to provide the equipment, information, and training necessary to create the initial cooperative and aid in the implementation of its agenda. Funding for local replication of cooperatives will be made possible by established cooperatives' pooling of, say, 15% of the windfall generated from savings on utility bills, though ultimately this figure will be up to the cooperative. The remaining savings could be used to enhance nutrition, health care, and education for the people living in the cooperative in a neighboring community. Once a new cooperative is established, it, in turn, will facilitate the creation of an additional cooperative. This will result in a grassroots expansion of the policy, and will also lead to a reduction in cost of solar equipment by stimulating the market.

The cooperatives will also act in coalition with existing environmental organizations in the area to facilitate mass transit expansion and the conversion of vehicles over to solar generated electricity or hydrogen combustion. We will aid in the organizing of coalitions to accelerate and strengthen their development. SALUSTRA will also aid in providing the technical information necessary to create proposals for these conversions to the coalitions.

Middle to High Income Areas

In these communities, consumption rates are higher, and though electric power generation can be handled in a similar fashion to the initial cooperatives, absence of public transportation, the amount of cars, and the antithetical nature of the arrangement of 'suburban' neighborhoods to comprehensive public transportation policies make it necessary to also focus on auto conversions. This will bide time before coalitions can be organized to the extent necessary to force municipalities to guide city planning into transportational sanity. Mass auto conversion is to be considered as a mid-term solution only. Building individual cars is resource intensive and highly destructive. Eventually, the excessive need for individual cars will be replaced by an efficient and comprehensive transportation policy, the completion of which can potentially happen within 21st century.

The basic structure of the cooperative will be similar to what was elucidated previously, though the lower density of homes might make a 50-home cooperative less feasible than a grouping of 15 to 20. As earlier, the cooperative will begin with efficiency retrofits and then move to solar thermal and photovoltaic installation. Again, 15% of the windfall generated from eliminating electric/heating bills will be used to seed adjoining cooperatives. However, these cooperatives are less likely to be in dire need of the basic necessities of life than lower income areas, so the remaining windfalls will go to setting up ways to reduce auto use in conjunction with a systematic conversion over to solar hydrogen and/or electric propulsion. Though the percentages of the windfall are ultimately up to the cooperative, 70% for alternative auto purchases and/or conversions and 15% for additional solar and other equipment for fuel would provide for the substitution of 5 cars each year.3 If solar electric cars are preferred, then the only necessary additional equipment would be more solar panels. If hydrogen combustion is the choice, then hydrogen fuel would have to be generated on-site, requiring more solar panels (though less than would be needed for electric cars for the same amount of travel requirement), water electrolyzers, and storage tanks (metal hydride are the safest and cheapest).

Eventually, as more such cooperatives are created, traveling long distances in a hydrogen or electric car would not be a logistical nightmare as fuel would become readily available over a geographically large area. This would require that cooperatives that are set up near interstates and other high trafficked areas produce more hydrogen or electricity than would be consumed by the cooperative. The excess hydrogen could be sold to recover the additional expenditures for the surplus potential. The advantage for hydrogen here is long-term storage. Batteries lose their charge over time while not in use, but hydrogen in a metal hydride tank maintains its chemical integrity indefinitely. SALUSTRA will begin setting up cooperatives along major routes of travel to ease the problem of where to get fuel. Ideally, a few short years will see a network of cooperatives of sufficient density to make transcontinental ground travel, if necessary, possible without fossil fuels. SALUSTRA will eventually circulate an inter-cooperative document, replete with maps and other information facilitating the transition into energy independence.

JOINT ACTION BETWEEN STUDENTS AND THE COMMUNITY

Colleges, universities, and certain secondary schools are an important source of the human potential and information necessary for the development of a widespread energy policy. There have been local efforts to bring in alternative energy at Unity College, Maine, and at the Johns Hopkins University. Similar initiatives are rumored to have organized at universities in Michigan and Wisconsin. A student group, for instance, could spawn a catalyst group which would work with a local low- income neighborhood group to establish a cooperative. Such an effort to coordinate these projects and implement them into the beginnings of SALUSTRA would help to facilitate initial research and would quickly build involvement as internet is available as well as other information and resources vital to getting up and running.

In addition to much needed technical knowledge and experience being close at hand, such cooperation would send a positive message to the community and engender good feeling and solidarity. It is in this way that SALUSTRA can gain a strong beginning. Consequently, each of the initial pilot projects will be located near colleges and universities where there is a student environmental presence.

TRANSPORTATION

Auto pollution represents 40% of the airborne pollution in the U.S. and traffic shows all signs of increasing without bound (The U.S. and Japan alone pumped nearly 23 million vehicles into the global fleet last year).

Clearly, the fewer cars and trucks driven, the better off we all are, regardless of what kind of fuel is used. Individual cars are expensive, hazardous, divisive, and downright inefficient. At most, cars will transport only 8000 people per km per hour if four people are traveling in each car. The average number of passengers in cars in the U.S. is a miserable 1.2. The number of passengers carried 1 km in 1 hour goes up to over 100,000 for passenger trains (WW Inst, Ibid.) People should be encouraged to forego their cars whenever necessary. Bicycles are great for exercise and are much cheaper than cars. Carriage devices can easily be attached to the back of a bike, making it possible to transport groceries, etc. Performing errands around town is actually quicker for bicycles than for cars, as was proven in Boulder, CO by small businesses and the local media during the summer of 1991.

Elimination of wasteful inner-city traffic

Groups involved in SALUSTRA can work with local/regional coalitions to close off major streets or whole inner cities to passenger car traffic. This type of urban planning has proven successful in Europe, for many downtown areas have been recently converted. Parking lots and streets become open space for bike/walk paths, trees, and more livable conditions. Public transportation and supply vehicles should be the only traffic allowed downtown. Maybe this will eventually lead to people living nearer to where they work, thus eliminating the need for nasty commuting. We can begin by contacting European groups to get plans, layouts and results of European Pedestrian Zones; the WorldWatch Institute would also have this information.

Railroads

There should be a national initiative to reestablish our rail network as the principal means to transport freight. This will test the unity and political clout of regional and national coalitions, for this should be instituted on the regional/national level. 5% of the pollution emitted by trucks is generated by trains for each kilogram of freight carried, and roads are not torn up as fast (WW Inst., Ibid.) Locomotive engines can also be converted to hydrogen combustion.

TECHNOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Solar Photovoltaics

It is necessary to mention the environmental impacts of solar cell production, considering this plan could lead to a dramatic increase in such production in the next several decades. Basically, there are several types of photovoltaic cells, the most known and widely used being the silicon variety. Others use gallium, arsenic, selenium, tellurium, and other elements, whose chemical effluents from production are quite toxic and dangerous. Silicon, besides being abundant everywhere, yields by far the most benign effluents. Silane (SiH4), is produced in reducing SiO2 into workable silicon, and has been known to spontaneously explode, but this danger is easily eliminated if the silane is burned at the source, producing water and silicon dioxide dust (which is benign and can be filtered out and recycled). The other potential risk is from the tin halides/alkylides that are used to construct the transparent conductors needed in solar PV cells. Fortunately, the cheapest of these species, tin tetrachloride, is slightly acidic but has not been shown to have any toxicity, although some companies are exploring the use of the more toxic varieties (tetramethyltin, dimethyltin dichloride, etc.) for the purpose of enhancing the quality of Sn deposition. We will ensure that companies which show the safest work places and cleanest effluents will be the ones that are supported. If the project becomes widespread, giving rise to increased influence, then this influence will be used to ensure that any company interested in mass production of PV cells be environmentally benign.

Texas Instruments has recently introduced a new production scheme that will cut the cost of Si solar panels in half. Instead of the traditional crystalline sheet of silicon, myriads of monocrystalline silicon spheres are employed in this new photovoltaic technology which also reduces resource consumption and effluent.By 1995 solar companies will be able to mass produce a thin film silicon cell which will reduce costs even further while consuming and producing a small fraction of resources and pollution, respectively. Information from the major solar energy companies, the Union of Concerned Scientists, NREL, Rocky Mountain Institute, Joan Ogden and/or Robert Williams @ Princeton, and other relevant sources will be compiled and incorporated into the overall strategy.

Hydrogen and solar electricity as alternative propulsion

Hydrogen and electricity as means of propulsion have become feasible both technologically and economically in recent years. Regional groups can convince mass transit authorities to convert their vehicles to hydrogen combustion and/or electric batteries run on solar photovoltaics. Solar electricity can be used to generate hydrogen from water on site, eliminating the need to constantly buy fuel. Active conversion of personal autos will occur primarily in the Western Arm late in the 1990's or early next century. Media campaigns will also be used to convince the public to switch over, since examples will be readily available and the companies that have this technology will be given the business necessary to go into full production.

It costs roughly $6,000 to convert an existing passenger car over to solar electricity which charges batteries, and this includes a permanent and independent fuel setup (Solar Electric Engineering Corp.). The cost to switch a Mitsubishi D-50 engine over to hydrogen combustion would be a few thousand $, since an improvement in the cylinder valve manifolds, the installation of a metal-hydride storage tank, an alteration in the 1st and 2nd gear ratios, and a turbocharger is all that would be necessary to do this (Hydrogen Consultants, Inc.). The average citizen spends over $15,000 on fuel alone over a 30 year period for one car.

There already exist specific companies that are capable of producing hydrogen combustion vehicles as well as vehicles that can run on electricity. Such companies are known to us. Mass transit and taxi fleets show the most potential to be converted initially, and hydrogen can easily be produced using solar electricity and water electrolyzers. Storage of hydrogen is not a logistical or a safety problem if metal hydride tanks are used. City wide coalitions or even whole regions acting in unison might be what it takes to facilitate these conversions. Since 1974, fleets of hydrogen buses have been running in Berlin, Germany, covering nearly 1,000,000 km (Daimler-Benz, 1990).

Industry

Only until after conversions in transportation and electric generation are well on their way in all three arms of the project will industrial production be actively included in the plans of SALUSTRA. The reasoning behind this is that although global industrial production accounts for one third of the total human greenhouse effluent, popular inertia and the intractable nature of energy production for the world's people is such that it needs to be addressed first and catalyzed. If all the families in the world consumed as much energy as the average U.S. family, global pollution would be hundreds of times more severe and this world would become hostile to life as we know it very shortly. In addition, it is quite possible that as alternative energy becomes cheaper than fossil fuel energy, people in industry will make the sound economic steps to convert over independently.

We therefore envision the focus on industry to begin sometime after 10 to 15 years, if necessary. The bulk of the focus will come from conservation, engine, and furnace conversion over to hydrogen combustion and/or solar electricity.

OUTREACH AND EDUCATION

Once this project is up and running, we will launch the largest outreach campaign imaginable to educate the public and eliminate the current misconceptions regarding the feasibility of a solar hydrogen energy policy. This will potentially spawn additional cooperatives or other means of conversion.

Funding

Funding for SALUSTRA will come primarily from donations of equipment, grants and private donors. Initially, the working groups should try to work under the assumption that money will be largely nonexistent. This is because funding sources, such as the Energy Foundation, require evidence that the group has been successful over a several year period. Also, in order to be granted IRS tax exempt status (a requrement for such grants), a similar track record needs to exist). It's a catch-22 situation, but the challenges are not insurmountable.

HYPOTHETICAL COSTS AND TIMELINE

The following budgets are based on worst case scenarios. This is to give you an idea of the magnitude of the expences if creative means of obtaining the equipment are overlooked.

The cost of Solar equipment was extrapolated from the retail costs found in the Real Goods, Inc. 1993 catalogue. Once a more complete cost analysis is done, the following budgets will change accordingly.

Present to the beginning of Year One:

core group

: Continue compiling strategies and feasibility studies. Begin the proccess for filing for incorporation and 501 (c)(3) tax exempt status (to be done by a core group of us) develop literature. Also begin to approach solar manufacturers for information.

projected cost: out of pocket, on the order of $100 or less.

each subgroup:

choose a site, help organize the site group (the actual residents of the conversion area, and develop SPECIFIC proposals for donations of solar panels and related equipment. These initial site(s) should ideally be located in an urban area where mass transit is well establishe, but this condition is not necessary.

Projected Cost: negligable

Conservation and Solar Installation--Year One.

The catalyst groups should be helping the cooperative implement conservation and conversions such that the cooperative is fully self- sufficient by the end of the year. The initial materials needed to set up the first cooperative will be given to the cooperative organization or sold at a token cost. There should be enough solar cells, batteries and converters to power 20 to 50 homes.

As new community power cooperatives form, each one will seed another one, thus expanding the area of solar coverage geometrically until the maximum amount of conversion that can be accomplished is reached. When 9% of the electric energy economy is converted to the cooperatives, then the electric utility companies that serve such areas will be approached to begin discussing retraining and eventual abandoning of fossil fuel generated electricity.

Projected costs: The absolute worst case scenario is that all solar equipment will have to be purchased at full cost. Full cost of solar equipment for a 1 family rowhouse-type dwelling is $3000, X20-50 homes X 1 cooperative=$60,000-$150,000. The cost for equipment for energy conservation (compact fluorescent lighting, insulation, etc.) should not exceed $5,000.

Further Implementation: Year Two

If the first for each pilot project that shows success, five new pilot projects should begin in the second year such that they are where the first cooperative was one year previously Again, these locations should be in urban areas where there is low income housing. This will take much networking both at the local and nonlocal levels to succeed. The implementation strategies should be similar to the initial one, but modified and streamlined based on feedback from the initial project. Again, the sharing of information via the network shold facilitate this.

The first pilot cooperative and the community organizations in coalition should begin to convince the local mass-transit authority to convert at least 10% of its bus fleet over to solar generated hydrogen combustion (nearly 20 years of research based on the German Project will be available). The cost of such conversion would be considerably less than purchasing a new bus, and lower maintenance and fuel costs would more than offset it within a few short years. in addition, they should build community support to work to close off inner cities (or portions thereof) to auto traffic based on several European cities. Detailed plans and analyses of the major European projects will be disseminated to help focus the efforts. This particular part of the project will probably spill over into the following year.

Year Three and Beyond:

There is no feasible way at this time to project this far, as forces internal and external to the project will greatly influence the course of widespread conversion. For example, in the distant future assuming that hundreds of projects spring up internationally it could come about that governments will capitulate in the face of overwhelming data suggesting that conversions are feasible with shoestring budgets. If it is decided that governments will support SALUSTRA, it would be best to have the SALUSTRA group/foundation facilitate conversions until this process is as complete as possible. Basically, strategies will be well honed and the staff experienced, making the group the best qualified to implement this energy policy. This case operates on the premise that if the people lead, the leaders shall follow. The only limitation would be the funding.

If governments or companies/fossil fuel interests to try to undermine SALUSTRA, this is the time that things will become hectic as most of the world will be aware of the project. Anything from widespread arbitrary policy decisions (like the denial of electric co-generation permits and zoning ordinances) to outright sabotage is within the realm of possibility based on previous U.S. government and corporate intervention in progressive movements. As things progress, more complete strategies will come about.

GETTING STARTED:

So you are an individual or a small group which has made the decision to form a catalyst group. If you have received this via the internet, then the link to the rest of us is already here. If not, you can contact Dave Pyles @ (916) 757-2739 , e-mail: dqpyles@ucdavis.edu initially. Then you will be put in touch with the rest of the "proto" steering committee. Details will follow, so in the meantime, if you feel like it, come up with any ideas which pertain to the overall vision of this effort or the organizational structure that you think would be helpful.

These are a few vague ideas; they are by no means final or complete. The current scheme of energy production and transportation in this world is at best unhealthy and dangerously unsustainable. SALUSTRA is designed to work within the time we have left to enhance the possibility of ecological and social survival.

We have the power to overcome what is happening to us and our world.

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