Harry Thomason - Solar Energy
(Page 13 of 13)
November/December 1979
By Richard Freudenberger
THOMASON: Well, first of all, let me say that a bureaucracy typically requires a lot of capital for its own operation. In fact, even the most efficient government operation can't give away 10 million dollars without spending half of that sum to sustain itself. It takes officers, proposals, people to analyze those proposals, monitoring personnel, follow-up studies, report writers, public information officers, and so forth. That's why the wholesale spending spree that's been going on in various government agencies for the past half-decade hasn't turned up much in the way of good solid results. It's a vicious circle that fails to bring many attempted projects to fruition ... and wastes money in the process.
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PLOWBOY: And that's why you're in favor of spreading the funds out thinly . . . through tax incentives or whatever.
THOMASON: Precisely. Now it's true that there will be those unscrupulous individuals who'll figure out a way to cheat on their income taxes by using the incentive, but they couldn't possibly embezzle as much as the government wastes or spends on itself.
PLOWBOY: But even given the bureaucracy, doesn't it seem strange that the various federal agencies didn't eventually see how they were squandering federal funds . . . and that low-cost alternatives were already available?
THOMASON: Well, I guess the government had to go the spendthrift route . . . the bureaucrats had to discover all the negatives first, as I see it. And that's exactly what they've done. They've taken hundreds of millions of dollars of the taxpayers' money and used it for all kinds of star-spangled, tinsel-covered Rube Goldberg contraptions . . . devices that cost Lord-knows-how-much and don't work anyway.
PLOWBOY: Now that the truth is out, so to speak, do you feel that-even though its experiments in solar technology were little more than wasted money-the federal government has at least done a good job trying to promote solar energy?
THOMASON: The federal government has probably done more harm than good in the solar energy field. While it's true that-without governmental involvement-the public eye would not be focused on the solar alternative as it is today, I can think of very few practical results of the wholesale spending that's gone on in the past five years or so. What's worse, the bureaucrats only told half the truth, glossing over the core of the matter . . . which is that a working solar system doesn't have to be any more expensive than conventional heating.
PLOWBOY: And do you think the government will correct that omission as time goes on?
THOMASON: Yes, I think they'll have to. There's no question that our nation needs solar energy, and I feel the government will now do an about-face and march boldly in the opposite direction . . . to publicize inexpensive solar technologies widely and strongly. But the shame of it is that-if the bureaucracy had done its job years ago-we'd have many more people living in, and enjoying, solar homes today.
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