00100	Dear Senator Tunney:
00200	
00300		This letter is a reaction to your speech at the Commonwealth
00400	Club on Friday November 26.  In the speech, you deplored the fact that
00500	Congress was immobilized on issues of energy and resources, and you
00600	attributed much of it to bad organization in the Congress overlapping
00700	jurisdictions, etc.
00800	
00900		Judging from your talk, the problem is that you prsonally
01000	are immobilized either by inability to decide what course the country
01100	ought to follow or fear of political retaliation; I suppose it is
01200	mainly the former.
01300	
01400		Here is what led me to this conclusion:
01500	
01600		1. You didn't mention nuclear energy except in response to
01700	my question.  Then you expressed personal opposition to the
01800	California anti-nuclear initiative, but your statement that everyone
01900	should vote his conscience implied that you would not use your
02000	prestige to help defeat it.  (If I am mistaken about this, I
02100	would like to know it, because I have organized a group at Stanford
02200	working to defeat the initiative and would welcome any statement
02300	I could use.)
02400	
02500		2. In the case of shale, you again expressed indecision;
02600	only hope that a process without environmental problems would
02700	be developed.
02800	
02900		3. I don't remember any reference to coal.
03000	
03100		4. I think you are correct that oil and gas can only
03200	provide temporary reductions in the amount we have to import.
03300	
03400		5. Your idea that a different organization of the oil
03500	industry would have prevented the 1973 crisis seems unsupported.
03600	In 1956 the U.S. took the position in connection with the
03700	Suez crisis that underdeveloped countries have no enforcable
03800	obligation to adhere to inconvenient contracts.  After that
03900	the 1973 crisis became inevitable as soon as a sufficient
04000	degree of dependence was created and the cartel could be
04100	organized.
04150	Anyway no reorganization of the U.S. oil industry will create
04175	oil and gas that doesn't exist.
04200	
04300		However, even if the oil suppiers kept their contracts,
04400	the oil would still run out by the end of the century.  
04500	
04600		In my opinion there are only two solutions to the energy
04700	problem for the U.S. - the breeder reactor and coal - the rest
04800	of the world doesn't even have the coal.  Fusion energy is
04900	still only a possibility and so is solar energy.
05000	
05100		Unfortunately, the need for nuclear energy goes far beyond
05200	the electric utilities' need to keep up with the demand for
05300	the present uses of electricity.  Somehow we have to replace
05400	the oil and gas used for transportation and heating, and nuclear
05500	energy has to do a large part of it.
05600	
05700		Most likely there will be a crisis requiring emergency
05800	action, because we will probably remain undecided until
05900	the shortages really hurt - i.e. force large numbers of workers
06000	to leave their families and live in barracks close to their
06100	work, and force families to move in with each other because
06200	there isn't fuel to heat separate houses.
06300	
06400		When this crisis occurs, large numbers of people
06500	have to leave their present occupations for crash programs
06600	in energy industries.  As they did during World War II,
06700	professors will leave the campus for industrial laboratories.
06800	Perhaps Stanford students will be drafted to dig coal mines.
06900	Under these conditions, environmental considerations will
07000	take last place; saving the topsoil over strip mines will
07100	be abandoned in the race to overcome the hardships the
07200	people face.
07300	
07400		All this can be avoided if we make plans now that
07500	guarantee the necessary energy and give all the safety
07600	and cleanliness we can get consistent with that need.
07700	Unfortunately, I fear that your own indecision multiplied
07800	by 535 is a major part of the problem.