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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1981)
Viewpoint The Battalion Texas A&M University Tuesday July 1, 1981 S a Slouch By Jim Earle “Remember your plan for making good grades this session: start out slow, build your momentum and finish strong? It’s about time to cut loose with your finish!" Breeder power plants in to bounce back beg By EDWARD ROBY United Press International WASHINGTON — The Clinch River Breeder, a nuclear power project that de fied President Jimmy Carter’s best efforts to kill it, is moving forward again despite a House committee vote to cut off its public financing. A $230-million authorization for the breeder reactor was restored to the 1982 budget last Friday by a House vote on an .jidministration-backed budgetparing bill. In May, a coalition of nuclear opponents and fiscal conservatives on the House Sci ence and Technology Committee had approved a measure terminating the breed er by a razor-close vote. But the Republi can-led Senate remained committed to the project, which could cost as much as $3 billion. The 753 public, cooperative and private electric utilities systems who have agreed to pay about 8 percent of the commercial demonstration project’s cost are the main proponents of Clinch River, which is to be built at Oak Ridge, Tenn. Carter, fearing that a commercial breed er would lead to commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing and undermine U.S. efforts to discourage the worldwide spread of atomic weapons, sought to withdraw financing on grounds that the Clinch River design was outmoded. The breeder is a nuclear power plant that creates more fuel than it consumes as it generates electricity. The most logical fuel for the breeder is spent fuel recycled from conventional power reactors, a feature that has prompted some advocates to call the breeder an answer to the nuclear waste issue. Breeder foes, led by Rep. Claudine Schneider, R-R.I. in the House, also argue that scaled-down estimates of electricity Completion of the project has been re commended by Congress’ General Accounting Office and proponents insist that constant design changes, despite Car ter’s criticism, make Clinch River the most advanced breeder concept in the world today. the small society by Brickman T Eit3 AFfZicA A1lp.£^T f&LAriP NATIV^^ AfZ&^'T ~mA\/EL )1981 King Features Syndicate. Inc World rights reserved T- /&> Warped Reagan’s views on lawyers for poor deserve closer look By DAVID S. BRODER WASHINGTON — On the same day that Associate Justice Potter Stewart made public his decision to step down from the Supreme Court, the House of Representa tives passed a measure extending the life of the Legal Services Corporation which runs the federally financed program providing lawyers for the poor. The vote in the House was 245-137, but that is short of the two- thirds majority that would be needed to override the veto presidential counselor Edwin Meese III has said he would recom mend to President Reagan. The fact that the President who does not see any compelling need for the continua tion of the Republican-created program of legal services for the poor is the same Presi dent who will soon be filling Potter Ste wart’s “swing seat” on the Supreme Court is something to give you pause. Reagan has been hostile to the legal ser vices program since its beginning in the Nixon administration. When legal services lawyers went to court on behalf of impover ished Californians and won judgements that the Reagan administration was illegally denying them their benefits under federal and state programs, the then-governor was furious. A compromise of sorts was negoti ated, but it did not dispel Reagan’s hos tility. Now, as President, he is proposing that the Legal Services Corporation he abo lished and its funds cut off. Instead of the staffs of specially trained lawyers now avail able to help poor people with their prob lems, the administration is saying that their legal needs can be met by the states— using scarce funds from the reduced federal social services block grant — or by private law firms doing charitable work. Meese sug gested at the University of Delaware law school that taking care of the poor’s legal problems might provide some good prac tice and relief from the teduim of the clas sroom for third-year law students. The best comments on this brand of thinking came, not from the bleeding-heart liberals, but from some of the Republican members of the House who have intimate knowledge of the program. Rep. Tom Railsback of Illinois, who is about as sentimental as barbed wire, helped manage the bill in the House. "The Americans we are talking about, it is fair to say, are poor,” he remarked. "They repre sent a disproportionate number of Amer ican minorities and they represent a dis proportionate number of America’s elderly citizens ... The subcommittee. Republicans and Democrats alike, made this decision that the 29 million poor Americans should be able to sit down and discuss their legal problems with an attorney.” “Every lawyer in this body,” the Illinois Republican said, “and in the nation for that matter, is fully aware of the fact that to successfully use our system of justice, you urbai bedh iep. .VI, Caldwell Butler of Yirp^J ^ >ub! *' "’'irnsr 1 ’ 1 i watt a Te shoe with thosi I al of floot deny these people their assistance: phec very same as denying them access t( proft system of justice. If we do this, thenl H lieve the consequences may be serkni: mixti just for the i>oor, but for our entire^ s of government . ” Re Republican as conservative as his m said: “I remind my colleagues thattbe.^oth al Services Corporation is a Republic!— m itiative, which had its earliest beginrfunds when Lewis Powell, Jr., was preside Be the American Bar Association in l^plan Lewis Powell, Jr., is now a justicec inves Supreme Court ... appointed by a Ren wo 11 * can President ™ ove "I share the view Mr. Justice Powei * pressed ... in August 1976.’ ■given and quoted him as follows: Equaljcthe i under law is not merely a caption oithere facade of the Supreme Court building He perhaps the most inspiring idealofourfo a b£ ety. It is one of the ends for which ourc8 reen legal system exists. And central totk a ® c ai tem is the precept that justice not bednj^ 5 ^ demand and ample uranium supplies make breeder technology a costly luxury. “The strategy right now is to fight it in the Appropriations Committee. You can’t write a check on an authorization,” said Janet Huling, a Schneider aide. “You do all this stuff, you stop it and you beat it and it keeps coming back, ” she said. “It’s just like a monster.” More than $1 billion has already been spent on Clinch River, which is supposed to produce 375 megawatts of power for the Tennessee Valley Authority if it is ever finished. The design is about 80 percent complete. Physicist Hans Bethe and other pro- nuclear scientists told Congress in June that “the United States urgently needs the working experience and trained personnel, which only an ongoing Clinch River Breed er Reactor Project can provide.” need the assistance of an attorney — and to because of a person’s race, religion u liefs. Also, it is fundamental thatji should be the same, in substano availability, without regard to eaw status. ” Ronald Reagan does not understo accept tht proposition. He almost cert will use his veto on the legal-service! And then he will decide who sits a Supreme Court with men of the dun of Justice Powell. It is something to poa It is Drote< h nc a af V. ill te <, jsc you H/WL A GRI 'Al SENSE. OU TIMING, POTTER... Several other nations, most notable France and the Soviet Union, are also ex perimenting with fast breeder technology. Wallace Behnke of Chicago’s Common wealth Edison utility, who heads the breed er project, argues that the breeder is needed to augument dwindling uranium fuel supplies for conventional reactors. “Current estimates show that U.S. re serves of reasonably priced uranium pro vide little margin for further expansion,” he said. “The breeder will use nuclear fuel 30 to 50 times more efficiently than the pre sent generation of commercial nuclear pow er reactors.” e : s t >le .Vt :s : ter if :u s " ,s f en ; ei ^du At I fonts i v ork pi bat jot v ork ar be dot This ■rs was exas A >ot inc ssistan In a follege ne of t ffers a j d on c lied. A stu -hedut Those 3.64 ar Inflation or no, RVs are way of /i/r- By JAMES V. HIGGINS United Press International DETROIT — The recreation vehicle indus try, devastated over the past two years by high interest rates and gasoline prices, is beginning to see solid evidence of a sales recovery. Firmly believing that the RV lifestyle is alive and well and just gone temporarily into hiding, industry executives have watched anxiously for an upturn for the past two years. In April — the latest month for which statistics are available — shipments of re creational vehicles from manufacturers to dealers amounted to approximately 25,000 units, a 75 percent improvement over last year and the industry’s highest monthly tot al since May of 1979. Sales of recreational vehicles — ranging from small towable trailers to large self- contained motor homes — declined more sharply during the past recession than sales of passenger cars. By contrast, domestic car sales declined 29 percent in the same period from 9.3 million in 1978 to 6.6 million in 1980. Now, according to David J. Humphreys, president and general counsel of the asso ciation, it appears the rebound will be much stronger than the small gains auto makers recently have seen in the passenger car market. “We had been saying for more than a year that there was great pent up demand for our product and that eventually that demand would translate into sales," he said. Shipments of RVs in the first four months of 1981 are about 29 percent highe: last year. There have been predi overall 1981 shipments will exceed las by 30 percent. i Supplies are good, prices haves ized and the attitide of our federalgf merit about energy use for recreationa poses has improved dramatically,"f phreys said. Humphreys said much faith is placed in the Reagan administration! nomic policies. Sales of recreational cles should improve further if theft budget and tax cuts work to reduce inf and interest rates, he said. By Scott McCullar WEL'RE TALKING T OP AY WITH REV. DONALD WfLDMOISt, CHAIRMAN op" THE COALITIOtf MY COALITION HAS, AS YOU MAY HAVE HEARP, DECIDED TO CONTROL WHAT AMERICA FOR BETTER TV, WHO HAS A NEW ANNOUNCE MENT CONCERNING H/S ORGANIZATION. CAN WATCH ON TV, BUT WILL FIRST CLEANING IT S OWN HOUSE ($0 TO speak).. OUR COALITIONS FIRST ACT OF CENSORSHIP SfJIL-L 6E TO CLEAN UP : THE B/BLE? THERE'S SO MUCH SEX AND INCEST, SEDUCTIO/V, LUST, VIOLENCE AND BRUTALITY IN IT... AFTER ALL, IF WE'RE GOING TO LIVE BY IT AND PROMOTE IT ON THE RELIGIOUS NETWORK TOO, IT SHOULD LIVE UP TO THE SAME STANDARDS WE'RE TRYING TO IMPOSE OTHERS The Battalion U S P S 045 .160 MEMBER Texas Peess AxxoCaUon LETTERS POLICY Southwest Journalism CottKrcs* Editor Angelique Copeland Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 w City Editor Jane G. Brust length, and are subject to being cut if they are longf Photo Editor Greg Gammon editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for s!) Sports Editor Ritchie Priddy length, but will make every effort to maintain the $ Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff intent. Each letter must also be signed, show the News Editors Marilyn Fanlkenberry, and phone number of the writer. Greg Gammon, Venita McCellon Columns and guest editorials are also welcome,i* StaffWriters Bernie Fette, Kathy O'Connell, not subject to the same length constraints ;is I' Denise Richter Address all inquiries and correspondence to: EdiK' Cartoonist Scott McGullar Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M Uni* College Station, TX 77843. EDITORIAL POLICY The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper The Battalion is published Tuesday, Wednesof] operated as a community service to Texas A&M University Thursday during Texas A&M’s summer scniestc* and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Bat- subscriptions are $16.75 per semester, $33.25 ixf talion are those of the editor or the author, and do not year and $35 per full year. Advertising rates fund necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M Universi- request. ty administrators or faculty members, or of the Board of Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed MeDotnW] Begents. ing, Texas A&M University, College Station, IX The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes United Press International is entitled exelusivel* within the Department of Communications. use for reproduction of all news dispatches credit Questions or comments concerning any editorial matter Bights of reproduction of all other matter herein should be directed to the editor. Second class postage paid at College Station, 1