27 



Mr. Adams. From the prospective of the program. 



Mr. AuCoiN. The slower you go the longer it is going to be to get 

 the answers that you just identified that we need to find. 



Mr. Adams. Yes, sir, I agree with you. From the prospective I 

 gave this morning, however, I would indicate to you again that it is 

 my opinion that if we are going slow, in any of the areas, it is slow 

 in the terrestrial base system, relative to the ocean system. 



Mr. AuCoiN. Let me ask you this. In your judgment, would it be 

 feasible on a technological basis, for individual households to oper- 

 ate bacterial digesters to produce methane for their own use in the 

 United States? 



Mr. Adams. I simply cannot see that on a wide basis in this 

 country. But we have seen it in China. 



Mr. AuCoiN. You have seen it in China? 



Mr. Adams. Yes, sir. 



Mr. AuCoiN. I have seen it in China. Why can we not do the 

 same thing? 



Mr. Adams. We have seen rather large programs of that nature 

 in China, hundreds of thousands of homes or more, oriented in that 

 direction. 



Mr. AuCoiN. And China is one of the most primitive, backward 

 countries in the world, but we cannot do it here? 



Mr. Adams. Of course, the technology is relatively primitive and 

 backward, and lends itself to more or less to communal types of 

 living, and it is also carried out in China by 



Mr. AuCoiN. That is my definition of the suburbs. 



Mr. Adams. But the work is also done in China by groups of 

 people who live together and do that as voluntary work. 



When you ask me about how practical, or how feasible, I think 

 that would be for this country, I am simply reflecting more or less, 

 on the type of lifestyles that we have become accustomed to. 



Mr. AuCoiN. I do not think that this energy technology is a tool 

 of the socialist state, is a requirement for membership of the Com- 

 munist Party, or the Peoples' Republic of China, or that one has to 

 be living in a Chinese-style commune, in order to develop the 

 technology. The technology can be used there, it can be used here. 



What are the cultural hangups that you see? I just do not under- 

 stand that. 



Mr. Adams. I do not mean to be flippant about this, but I live 

 also in the suburbs, in northern Virginia. 



Mr. AuCoiN. What is the name of the commune? 



Mr. Adams. I am trying to envision how I would do that, orga- 

 nize my own townhouse community to do that. I simply do not 

 have the answer to that question. 



Mr. AuCoiN. Has DOE done any work on the whole question of 

 small digestors of this kind? Is there any work done by DOE at all 

 on this question? 



Dr. San Martin. Our small digestor work has addressed prob- 

 lems that could be resolved for farm-type applications, more the 

 rural-type applications. 



Mr. AuCoiN. For what? 



Dr. San Martin. Farm-type application, where instead of at- 

 tempting to utilize the human waste or sewage, we would be utiliz- 

 ing animal residues in the digestive process, and low type cost of 



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