COMMITTEE FOR PROMOTION AND DEFENSE OF USEFUL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


	The Committee for the Promotion and Defense of Useful Science
and Technology (CPDUST) is a new public interest science and
technology organization.  A new organization for defending science
and technology and encouraging new useful technology is needed
because of the following circumstances:

	1. Science and technology today are under attack from a variety
of sources.  Already these attacks have done considerable harm in
discouraging talented students from entering science, delaying
desirable projects and getting some cancelled, and getting certain
technologies banned on dubious grounds.

	2. When a hearing on some proposed project is held, the adversaries
are usually environmental organizations and the company that proposes
the project.  Only the form can claim to be disinterested.  When a
government agency such as the AEC is involved, it is also accused of
bad motives or bureaucratic inertia in proposing the project.  CPDUST
will intervene in such cases with motives and finances as pure as those
of the environmentalists although often from a different point of view.

	The point of view of CPDUST will develop over time and will
depend on the results of studies, but it is necessary to advance some
preliminary ideas.  People who find themselves in substantial agreement
with these ideas should consider joining.

	1. Civilization has advanced, and science and technology have
been the main drivig force behind this advance.  There are further
advances to be made.

	2. While technological blunders have been made, much more sufffering
has ensued from slow development than from these blunders.  Attempts to
avoid blunders in the future that impose substantial delays on the development
of technology are more likely to do harm than good.

	3. There are many specific projects at present that have been delayed
by unjustified attacks.  Specifically,

		a. The Alaska pipeline.

		b. The breeder reactor.

		c. The SST.  (We realize that some who agree on other matters
will disagree about the SST.)

		d. The Orion rocket.

		e. The Plowshare program.

		f. Many conventional light water reactor projects.