A $4 MILLION CESSPOOL

Last May, when the Ford Foundation's Energy Policy Project's preliminary report came out, we commented on it in an editorial. The final report late last year did not substantially differ, so we did not add any more to our previous comments. It is, after all, more enjoyable to wnte about the positive aspects of energy than to gloat over a cripple crawling from a $4 million cesspool of ideological economics.

But no harm done, for that final report, entitled A Time to Choose, has now been expertly, exhaustively and devastatingly rebutted in a critique called No Time to Confuse by 10 outstanding scholars - 7 economists, 2 physical and one political scientist. "A Time to Choose," says UCLA economics professor Alchian, "enters the Guiness Book of World Records for most errors of economic analysis and fact in one book." And U. of Rochester political scientist Riker: "This kind of ideology is used to justify the existence of a planned society which works, if it works at all, only in the context of a police state." Renowned oileconomist and MIT professor Adelman writes about the report's implicit blessing of the OPEC cartel, which he traces to the false notion that such events "occur with your consent. You are not a helpless ripped-off victim despised by the ripper, but a broad-minded statesman. People really feel better when they have voice in determining the sauce with which they are to be eaten. But this pleasure and comfort do not come for free."

No Time to Confuse is a 155-page paperback obtainable for $2.95 from the Institute of Contemporary Studies, 260 California St., Suite 811, San Francisco, CA 94111.