COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00002 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	.require "let.pub[let,jmc]" source
C00019 ENDMK
C⊗;
.require "let.pub[let,jmc]" source;
∂AIL Professor Miro M. Todorovich↓410 Riverside Drive↓Apartment 82A
↓New York, N.Y. 10025∞
Dear Miro:

	Congratulations on our press conference.  At least it made
the AP - as the enclosed dispatch shows.

	On August 7, the anti-nuclear
people had a demonstration with Commoner and Ellsberg as speakers at
the site of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant.  Tom Connolly and I organized
a pro-nuclear counter-demonstration of about 15 people.  We got a share
of the publicity entirely disproportionate to the effort we put into it,
so I conclude that it was a good idea.  The anti-nuclear people arranged
to get themselves arrested by climbing the fence into the Pacific Gas and
Electric Company property and refusing to leave.  One of our graduate
students suggested that we should have blocked their way.  On reflection,
I think he is right.  They would have gone around us, but we would have
gotten nearly half the publicity.  The important point is to show that
there is a substantial public that favors nuclear energy, and it isn't
just the companies vs. aroused citizens.

	A second AP dispatch tells about Carter's conference at which
he will unsuccessfully attempt to persuade other countries to give
up using plutonium.  I would like to suggest that SESE hold a press
conference at which we urge other countries to stand firm and not
give in to Carter.  It seems to me that they can honestly be told that
Carter is continuing his pointless effort in order to pay a political
debt to the anti-growth lobby.  There is a good chance that lobbying
against the government's diplomatic position would result in some ill-considered
statements by Administration officials that would advance our cause.
Carter is known to have a short fuse on people disagreeing with him.

	Here is a possible short statement:

.SKIP 1
%2
.once center
PLEASE HELP US BRING OUR GOVERNMENT BACK TO ITS SENSES

	Since 1955 the United States has been the leader in 
developing the peaceful use of atomic energy on a world-wide scale.
We are sorry to have to inform you that this can no longer be
relied on.  The anti-growth movement in this country is strong
enough and has developed such fanaticism that all politicians,
including the President, find it expedient to make concessions to
it - even when these concessions involve breaking international
agreements.

	In our judgment, the U.S. Government position on reprocessing
and breeder reactors has no reason behind it.  It is simply a compromise
between those who want to abandon nuclear energy and those who want to
proceed with its use.  The policy will eventually be abandoned by
the United States, but its harmful consequences will affect other
countries that follow it sooner than they will affect the United
States.  Even those countries who do not follow it will be adversely
affected by its effect in increasing the 
U.S. demand for oil and bidding up the price.

	Therefore, we hope you will find it in your interest as well
as ours to help persuade our Government to adopt a more sensible
policy%1.

	Perhaps this is too strong, but I think something like it is
necessary.  It could be backed up with previous SESE documents.

.reg

P.S.	Here are the two AP dispatches taken out of our computer:


%2
a022  0007  15 Sep 77
PM-Energy Rdp,490
By JOHN LENGEL
Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - A group of southern and midwestern governors are
criticizing President Carter's energy plan, now shorn of a proposal to
reform the way utilities charge for electricity.
    Oklahoma Gov. David Boren told the Senate Finance Committee that
Carter's energy plan is a dead-end street because it focuses entirely
on conservation and makes no provision for meeting long-term needs.
    Boren said Carter's plan ''provides for the most part only the
rationing of a shortage, not for any long-range victory for the
consumer through more adequate supplies.''
    He spoke on behalf of the southern and midwestern governors'
conferences.
    Carter wants to raise gasoline taxes to make the fuel more dear to
consumers. The governors say profits, not taxes, should rise to give
the industry an incentive to develop new supplies.
    Meanwhile, the Senate Energy Committee Wednesday threw out most of
Carter's plan to reform electricity pricing.
    Only shreds of the President's utility plan survived. Sen. Henry
Jackson, D-Wash., the panel chairman, called the utility rate proposal
an unwarranted intrusion into state regulation.
    The committee dropped provisions that would have ended discounts for
large industries and mandated lower prices for household electricity
use during off-peak hours.
    In another energy development, Federal Energy Administrator John F.
O'Leary told a Senate Commerce subcommittee that ''one or perhaps
two'' pipelines may be needed to carry surplus Alaska oil from the
West Coast to the interior.
    The panel is considering legislation to expedite federal approval of
a pipeline plan to the distribute the oil once it reaches western
terminals.
    West Coast refineries can process only half of the 1.2 million
barrels that will be arriving a day beginning in March by ship from
the Alaskan North Slope fields.
    Until the new pipelines are built, tankers will carry the surplus to
Gulf Coast refineries.
    Also on Wednesday, a group of scientists urged Congress to ignore
the President and continue work on the nuclear breeder power plant
project at Clinch River, Tenn.
    Spokesmen for Scientists and Engineers for Secure Energy told a news
conference the arguments against further funds for the project are
strained and artificial.
    Carter wants to stop construction of the project on the grounds that
its production of nuclear weapons-grade plutonium could lead to arl7