European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 05, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday february 5 1991 the stars and stripes James j. Kilpatrick a a a v Page 13 commentary Energy future for the . Looking Good if Oil Fields and refineries Are burned or bombed in the persian Gulf War what consequences could be. Expected Here at Home and Over the Long aul what alternative sources of Energy could be realistically developed for answers a reporter dropped around the other Day to see James d. Watkins Secretary of Energy. The gentleman does no to answer comfortably to a emr. he a still a the Admiral a an Echo of 40 years in the Navy climaxed by his service As chief of naval operations. Watkins among other things is an expert on nuclear Power. First off Oil supplies Are not about to run dry. The world now a experiencing a glut of Oil. Inventories in t december were More than 150 million barrels above average Stock Levels of the past four years. Other producing nations have More than replaced the 4.3 million barrels per Day that have been lost from Iraq and Kuwait. The torching of Oil facilities in Kuwait will have Little effect. Saudi arabian Wells can be protected against significant permanent damage. There certainly is no need to panic because of the War. There is no need even to become anxious for the foreseeable future. A All the same As Watkins recently emphasized reliable and abundant supplies of Oil Are vital to the global Economy. Coal May provide an alternative to Oil in some instances but in Many manufacturing presses Oil is irreplaceable. A it Wili remain essential in our lifetime a and in that of our children a he says. For these reasons simple prudence suggests that the United states reduce its vulnerability to the volatility of the International Oil Market. Alternative Energy sources must be promoted and made More efficient. The Admiral has sent president Bush a National Energy strategy built around these elementary premises. What alternative sources is Watkins talking about Quot nuclear Power above All else. Its his Field. The Admiral got out of the naval Academy in 1949, went through the usual assignments of a Young officer and then Anna Quindlen earned his master s degree in reactor engineering at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. With the encouragement of adm. Hyman Rickover he went into nuclear submarines and then served for three years in the atomic Energy commission As Rickover a assistant for naval nuclear propulsion. Granted the nuclear Power Industry has had a rough time of it in recent years. The 110 atomic plants now in operation produce 20 percent of the nations electric Power but no new plants Are under construction or even licensed for construction. If a Plant were started tomorrow it would be 2003 to 2005 before it came on line. Twenty nine of the existing plants will run out of waste storage capacity by 1998. Ways must he perfected to Bury waste for l of ,000 years. The problems Ai e not insurmountable. Watkins expects to see a single Plant design approved by the end of 1992. General electric and Westinghouse Are competing for authorization to put a new 650-megawatt Plant on line by 2000. By 2010, if All goes Well nuclear plants will provide 30 percent of our nation s Power. Meanwhile Watkins takes a realistic View of other alternative sources. Except in Hawaii and a few places on the niacin land wind Power will not amount to much. Research continues on Oil shale a the Admiral thinks it Wefun keep this possibility alive a but shale will not be competitive for years to come. He is encouraging the private sector to continue work on geothermal ventures. What about solar Energy this was the talk of the Industry 10 or 15 years ago. Watkins believes there is a real potential yet to be tapped. By 2000 solar Power should be competitively priced. It is too expensive now to play a significant role. All in All says the Admiral the nations Energy future looks pretty Good. Sensible conservation and imaginative research will Lessen our dependence on Oil and enhance the environment. Watkins is enthusiastic. Full Speed ahead c a Versal press Syndicate War reveals social changes contradictions the morning shows the late night shows the radio Call in shows a All of them were out rounding up women As though they were casting one of those distaff buddy movies Hollywood was fond of for a moment. Women officials. Women professors. Women soldiers. A woman had reportedly been taken prisoner in the persian Gulf. Biology if not destiny was at least newsworthy. Stop the presses women really Are at War. It s a Little like the talking dog no one seems to care How Well she does it Only that she does it at All. There Are 30,000 women just doing their jobs in the Gulf we should know this by now because they have been photographed and interviewed out of All proportion to their numbers. But the hard facts of women waging War seem to come Home most keenly now when one maybe in the hands of the enemy. All these years the Pentagon has insulated us from that scenario with rules barring women in combat. What they did t say was that in Inu Seiti warfare ovum bad can to everywhere. There a been an interesting Side effect of War in the persian Gulf. Just As it has distilled combat to its fast Forward essence a can it be Only two weeks since we be been at this a it has also writ Large changes in society. We have talked for a decade about the extraordinary difficulties of the new american family but they have been dramatized by couples going together to saudi Arabia and leaving children behind. We have discussed and discussed the revolution in the lives of american women and in our attitudes toward what it Means to Boi Emale. Women at War make us think again about How much we have changed and How Little. One of 10 soldiers today is a woman. They have turned to the service for some of the same reasons minorities have for College Money technical training a Way out of a Pink Collar ghetto filled with dead ends. Their decision has got mixed reviews. Some feminists believe it Means that women have sunk to the level of men. They believe the role of women in wartime is to say a this is men who Long for the 19th Century believe this shows that the armed forces have fallen on hard times that women at the mercy of tides and lunar cycles will be unable to Power a Supply truck. _ most people recognize the military for what it is. Its not just an adventure its a Job. Until we get to the what ifs. Well we be got to the what ifs now a 20-year-old Michigan woman a former High school Roth Cadet missing presumed captured. Her parents May Well curse their imaginations at this moment thinking of what the iraqis might do to her. Saddam Hussein lives in a world in which women a liberation is a contradiction in terms in which a woman with her sleeves rolled up is considered a rebuke to her creator. Perhaps this will inspire him to treat any female prisoners like pack animals. Or perhaps the paternalistic attitudes of the Muslim world May Lead him to tread More carefully. In sexism will be salvation. In be heard it said the american Public is not ready for t this As though we Long ago made our peace with beaten and tortured men. But thinking about women prisoners is Tough for some of us and that is because the revelations of social change that have come with this War Are revelations of changes not fully accepted. Any heightened horror at women warriors is tinged with a double Standard. It assumes somehow that the travails of men Are less heartbreaking than those of women. \ that is insulting to men and to the people who love them. It assumes that some americans for whatever reason Are More tormented by the vision of a woman in a body bag than a Man in one. That happens to be True. There Are so Many double standards in this binary society and the military has taken full advantage of this one. Rules barring women from combat units were designed specifically to meet Public Comfort Levels the Comfort level of the military too. As rep. Pat Schroeder says a by pretending they were protecting women from harm All they were really protecting them from was thousands of women who have chosen the service As their life a work face sanctioned Job discrimination a Glass ceiling permitted by statute. To become a storming Norman you Havo to have flown the bombing raids led the troops through the Jungles. A but this War has already shown that the Pentagon policy is designed for the Comfort level of a world that has ceased to exist whether we All like it or not. Women will fight. Women May die. One woman May already be held prisoner. Sometimes the realities of life outstrip our perceptions. That is Manifest when you consider this a female pow could comitts me to a Parade a medal and the disclaimer that she is not fit for combat. In other words insult As Well As injury. A a. C the new York times
