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ISPIRG
spreads

FOOtS

”According to a number of
legislators, ISPIRG could become
the strongest lobbying group in the
state oi Iowaiif it keeps growing
at the grass-roots level and the
quality at its research keeps up,”
commented Matt Heine, local
chairperson.

Throughout the year ISPIRG has
been involved in various projects.
Recently results have been ob-
tained in several areas. In January
the Iowa Commerce Commission
ruled that utility companies may
charge their customers only for
advertisements telling how to save
energy, However, stockholders
mus? {not the bill for political,
institutional and “good will" ads.
Also last month, 65-foot trucks
were banned irom Iowa highways.

Results at a iuel economy
statistics report were published in
December. The report pointed up
inaccuracies in mileage reports
given to consumers by car dealers
and is now being considered by the
Federal Trade Commission. Now,
members at ISPIRG are lobbying
ior bills to prevent construction oi
nuclear powervplants. In Grinnell,
students are trying'to get each
dormitory to save its newspapers
so they may be picked up and
recycled.

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ISPIRG, along with other con-
sumer groups, has been arguing
that utility company stockholders
should pay for all utility ads and
that promotional and “good will”
ads should be completely barred,
Commerce Commission
reinsed to go that iar. However,
the ruling marks the first time in
its history that stockholders will be
required to pay for some types oi
utility company advertising. Ad
expenses had been included in
rates that utilities charged Iowans
for their services.

Last month the state Depart
ment of Transportation voted
against allowing os-ioot double-

0 bottom trucks on Iowa highways,

ISPIRG has been one of the major
opponents to allowance of the
trucks: Roger Colton, chairperson

of ISPIRG at Iowa State, said that
there is still the possibility of an
amendment to allow the trucks
being tacked on to any bill.
Coltnn also said that heavy
trucks use up tremendous amounts
of energy. He said that the heavy

ISPIRG opposes allowance of 65-
ioot trucks for safety and energy
reasons. Colton stated that in
proportion to their mileage on iowa
highways, heavy trucks are in-
volved in twice as many accidents
as regular traiiic

trucks that cross Iowa every day
consume enough energy to heat 112
Iowa homes for an entire winter.
He added that if the tonnage hauled
by the trucks were transported by
train, enough energy would be
saved to heat oi of those homes.
Last fall ISPIRG members were
involved in a sur‘hy oi 31 Iowa car
dealers in an attempt to show the
need for standardized testing
procedures for miles-per-gallon
data Inrall new cars. It was part of
a nationwide survey whose results
are now being considered by the
Federal Trade Commission.

The ISPIRG committee com-
piled a table illustrating the wide
range ofgas mileage statistics that
were reported. The paper also
pointed out the consumer’s difr
iicuity in determining the effect oi
various options on gas mileage.

Recommendations that ISPIRG
proposed as a result oi the study
include acccpmnce oi the En-
vironmental Protection Agency's
EPA) iuel economy testing
procedure as a standard {or gas
mileage comparisons between new
cars, posting oi EPA’s gas mileage
statistic stickers on “all new cars
at the point or display ior sale
beginning in the 1976 model year”,
and a public education program to
he conducted by the Federal Trade
Commission and the Federal
Energy Administration to iniorm
consumers and salespersons about
the existence and use of EPA
stickers.

Nuclear power is another area in
which ISPIRG personnel have a
strong interest. Thc organization is
backing several bills aimed at
prevention oi the construction oi a
nuclear plant in iowa. iowa Power
and Light Company is the only

utility that has announced plans to .

build a plant in Iowa.

ISPIRG opposes the nuclear
plants for safety and economic
reasons Heine emphasized that
the nuclear process uses plutonium
236, the most deadly substance
known to mankind. “If a person

 

. \
Mike WinslonAThe Scarlet and Black

inhales one speck of it, he will die
from cancer," Heine stated

He charged that security
guarding plutonium is ridiculously
lax. He told about several mem-
bers of the Union oi Concerned
Scientists who used pliers and
some screwdrivers to steal enough
plutonium to make an atomic
bomb

But right now, according to
Craig Severance, chairperson oi
ISPIRG’s Environmental Com-
mittee at Iowa State, inflation is
the most poweriul opponent of
nuclear plants, He said that there
is real doubt as to whether Iowa
Power and Light will be able to
raise the money to iinance their
proposed plant.

ISPIRG is promoting three main
bills aimed at preventing such a
plant, The most direct one would
put a fiveryear moratorium on
construction oi nuclear plants.
Another bill would require utilities
to prove that they can finance a
plant beiore they are allowed to
build it, A third one would give the
Iowa Commerce Commission the
power to prevent utilities irom
building nuclear plants. The
Commission's chairman, Maurice
Van Nosti‘and has requested this
power and Severance stated that
the legislators seem receptive to
this bill

on campus, Ruth Montgomery,
along with other members of
ISPIRG and oi Circle K are trying
to get each dormitory to collect
newspapers and put them out to be
collected and recycled. If the
papers are put on the curb beiore
3:30 am, on the tirst Saturday or
every month, the Explorer Scouts
will pick them up {Ind take them in
Des Moines to be recycled. “We
started it at the end of last
semester and didn’t have much of
a chance to get things going,”
explained Ruth. “We’rc trying to
get each dorm to take it over."
Loose, Rcad, James, clevlenad,
Mcars, Clark and Dibble are
presently collecting papers,

. ' ' byJaneti’opc

Food

concern
grows

“I think that the conference has
Clarified the dimensions of the food
crisis and it appears to me that
there aren't very great diiierences
between me views of the par»
ticipants as to what the problems
are,” stated I-I. Wayne Moyer.
conference committee chairman,
“There are differences as to what
has to be done and immense
disagreement on appropriate
political strategies to follow. I
suppose in the best sense oi the
word it truly has been a sym-
posium.”

In its continuing dialogue on
“Food, Famine, and Foriegn
Policy” the Rosentield Lectures
moves into its iourth day with a
presentation by international
economist Richard Cooper this
evening in Herrick Chapel. The
sessions have been well attended
each night by Iowans as well as the
Grinnell College Community,
allowing for “a maximum cross~
fertilization of ideas,” according to
one visitor,

To open the conference, Senator
Dick Clark joined Ambassador
Edwin M, Martin and a panel oi
distinguished agricultural
economists in defining the
dimensions oi the food Crisis. The
session was marked by a debate
iocusing on the seriousness oi the
population problcin and how it will
aiiect u.s. rorcign policy

Anthony Lake examined present
ioreign policy and the con»
siderations which enter into its
making on Wednesday, the second
session oi the conierence, The lack
oiregard for the human clement in
political decision making emerged
as his primary concern.

Following a
short guerilla
theatre skit, a
student panel
Irom the Third
World Group
presented an
alternative
viewpoint.

Attention was
focused on the
plight at less
developcd
nations “which
cannot be
considered
‘devcloping'

w h e n tli e
criteria oi
distribution

a n d l a n d
reiorni are
applied,”

Speaker Dali McCurry, a recent
addition to the Conference
program, will expand on the Third
World perspective today t 4 pm.
in South Lounge discussing “A
Socialist Perspective of the Food
Crisis.”

The events of the Grinnell
symposium on “Food, Famine,
and Foreign Policy” will appear in
a special magazine section in next
week’s issue of the Scarlet and
Black.

by Laura Miller

Grinnell College
Grinnell, Iowa

2/14/75 vol. 83, no. 18

Lawn
study
ﬁdded

President A. Richard Turner
received a study yesterday on
college use of fertilizers which he
requested trom the Physical plant
earlier in the week, After
discussing the study with
Proiessor Graham early next
week, Turner will also talk over me
study with the President's staff.

Turner asked ior the study in
response to a letter irom SGA
petitioning ior an end to use oi
fertilizer for decorative and other
purposes. The SGA letter was
answered by Turner in a letter
stating his intention of requesting
the study from Biro. (The text of
the Turner letter is printed on page
tour.)

drawing by Carin be Free

The college at present uses six to
eight tons of iertilizer annually,
Since a main cause oi the world-
wide iood shortage is the current
high price and shortage of fer-
tilizer, SGA hoped that the cut»
tailment oi use at Grinnell would
be a symbolic act that would in-
spire other institutions to do me
samc. Although the actual amount
of iertilizer used at Grinnell is
sinaii, SGA also pointed out the
savings to the College in fertilizer
cost and labor,

Dale Hawn, Director of the
PhySical Plant. said that President
Turner has asked ior a report on
the use of both fertilizer and
herbicides. He said that he would
recommend that the use of fer-
tilizer be continued on the in-
tramural Iields. Hawn said that
since the college cannot water-
these areas the fertilizer must be
used to prevent the total loss oi
grass.

President Turner stated in his
letter that alter consideration of
the rcport trcm B i- G and cons
sultation with the President's staff
a decision would be made and a
report issued to the college comv
niunity. He assured SGA that he
appreciated the implications oi the
issue and that due conSltleration
would be given.

by Al Cubbagc

 

