Herbert Inhaber

In the past few decades, finding sites for undesirable facilities, such as prisons and garbage landfills, has become ever more difficult. The difficulty lies not in tracking down technically suitable sites, but in the so-called NIMBY syndrome. People might agree that a facility is desperately needed just as long as it is Not In My Back Yard. In Slaying the NIMBY Dragon, Herbert Inhaber draws on the experience of many NIMBY cases. He discusses new approaches to overcoming NIMBY, such as the reverse Dutch auction. Reverse, because undesirable objects are being auctioned. This market approach holds promise for meeting the objections of potential neighbors of a LULU (Locally Unwanted Land Use) as well as society's need to get the facilities built. According to Inhaber, a site auction works better than negotiation - the community handles it on their own, and when they are satisfied with a site they offer a bid. The hefty bonus would go to the first county that agrees to have a site built in their backyard. Psychological components of the NIMBY syndrome are also discussed - logical objections and why people think as they do about LULUs. Inhaber believes there is a way to assuage the fears of an affected community while simultaneously preserving the environment and the people. This book will be of interest to environmentalists, developers, policymakers, and those in the fields of waste industry, nuclear, and risk analysis.

Energy efficiency and energy conservation are often thought to be the same. They are not, according to Herbert Inhaber. Only when less total energy is consumed by all users will energy actually be saved. Energy efficiency schemes do not accomplish this goal of conservation: when one person or nation conserves energy, there is just more of it for others to use elsewhere. This is the first book to answer, comprehensively and objectively, the question: Do government energy conservation programs hinder or help the nation? Says Inhaber, "the fact that billions of dollars have been spent on energy conservation programs, without giving them a searching look at what has been accomplished, is a national scandal. " Clear, concise, and with numerous useful graphs and tables, this book is an important first step toward making us all aware of what energy conservation actually is - and is not - and how it can and should be implemented.