cover image Sch-Energy Unbound

Sch-Energy Unbound

Amory B. Lovins, Seth Zuckerman, L. H. Lovins. Random House (NY), $17.95 (390pp) ISBN 978-0-87156-820-5

Here is a wealth of information about energy, its efficient use and our choices, presented as a fable of sorts. The technique does not work. The authors, who are alternative energy spokesmen, introduce an ordinary Iowa housewife, Eunice Bunnyhut, newly appointed Secretary of Energy (the President wants a fresh, commonsense approach). Bewildered by the conflicting views of her assistant secretaries relayed at their first official meeting, she soon meets Duncan Jefferson Holt, an Energy Department scientist, who offers to enlighten her. For two weeks he discusses energy topics in detail, and Eunice responds with simple analogies from her own life (bake sales and the like). If the authors intended to show that anybody can learn about energy, perhaps they have succeeded. This energy primer is condescending""she rolled the thought of a greenhouse around her housewifely brain''and irritating. It will take a determined reader to stick with Eunice and Duncan; at the end, she uses her new knowledge to shake up the department and set it on the right path. Illustrations not seen by PW. (April 11)