The Michigan Daily-Friday, June 20, 1980-Page 9
NEW DEVELOPMENTS OVERSHADOW SUMMIT
Carter begins European trip
From AP and UPI
ROME - President Carter began an
eight-day, five-nation European trip
yesterday that he hopes will shore up a
beleaguered NATO alliance and boost
his sagging political fortunes in the
United States.
The trip was planned originally for
the president to attend an economic
summit conference in Venice on Sun-
day and Monday. But that agenda has
been overshadowed by other inter-
national developments and additions to
his travel schedule that will take him to
Yugoslavia, Spain, and Portugal.
THE TRIP marks the first time Car-
ter has left the White House for an ex-
tended period since Iranian militants
seized 53 U.S. hostages in Tehran in
November, and his first foreign trip
since last summer. Polls at home show
his re-election effort may be in trouble
in a race with expected GOP nominee
Ronald Reagan.
Air Force One landed on schedule to
massive security on a cool, clear night
after the eight-hour flight from
Washington. There was no official
arrival ceremony, and Italian soldiers
outfitted with bullet-proof vests and
automatic weapons outnumbered those
$50 trillion
solar power
program
proposed
NEW YORK (AP) - A major West
German electronic equipment
manufacturer yesterday proposed a $50
trillion program to convert the world's
economy to one powered by thousands
of solar energy "plantations" by the
middle of the 21st Century.
AEG Telefunken, a Berlin-based
company with annual sales of $10
billion, said vast banks of silicon cells
could generate electricity which then
would be conducted through tanks of
sea water to create hydrogen gas.
THE HYDROGEN, transported by
tanker or pipeline in the same manner
as natural gas, would power autos and
factories worldwide and eventually
could be "comparable to the present
cost of gasoline," Telefunken said.
The solar plantations, located in
tropical or subtropical regions, also
would contain plants manufacturing
equipment for new plantations, thus
reproducing themselves, Telefunken
said.
By the year 2040, 10 solar
"families," each containing 10,000 iden-
tical plantations, could be producing
"enough hydrogen to replace 15 billion
tons or 100 billion 42-gallon barrels of
oil," Telefunken said.
The world produced about 24 billion
barrels of oil last year.
The total area of the plantations
would cover 750,000 square miles,
nearly as big as oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
"The total investment costs would
amount to $50 trillion," the company
said. .
Silicon cells, made by Telefunken and
several other companies, already
generate electricity for space satellites
and long have been used in other small-
scale applications including
photographic light meters.
who greeted the presidential party.
Carter shook hands with cabinet of-
ficials and representatives of the
Vatican, then flew by helicopter to the
Quirinile Palace in downtown Rome to
greet President Alessandro Pertini.
CARTER, WHO warned allies before
leaving Washington that the Soviet
threat in Europe should not be un-
derestimated and must be handled
without a "reckless confrontation" or a
return to the Cold War, was confident
West German Chancellor Helmut Sch-
midt will not break ranks.
The president has added to his agen-
da a private meeting with Schmidt
tomorrow night in Venice to discuss the
West German Chancellor's upcoming
trip to Moscow, Secretary of State Ed-
mund Muskie told reporters on the
flight from Washington.
Muskie said he did not think Schmidt
would use the Moscow meetings to
propose a three-year freeze on
deployment of new nuclear missiles -
a move the chancellor has suggested in
the past despite a North Atlantic Treaty
Organization decision to deploy nuclear
missiles capable of reaching the Soviet
Union from Europe.x
AS HE LEFT the White House with
his wife Rosalynn, daughter Amy, and
top foreign policy advisers, Carter har-
dly mentioned the world economy as he
reviewed the list of topics he plans to
discuss.
"Our mission has many facets," he
said. "We will examine such issues as
energy dependence, the economics of
emerging nations, and lasting peace
for the Middle East. We will discuss the
clear-cut challenge of the Soviet in-
vasion of Afghanistan, the question of
terrorism and how to deal with Iran, the
control of nuclear arms."
Carter is scheduled to visit
Yugoslavia, where he said he would
assure that nation's leaders and people
"of America's unwavering support for
the independence, unity, and territorial
integrity of that great country, as well
as of our respect for its constructive,
non-aligned position."
Carter's visits to Spain on Wednesday
and Portugal on Thursday before
returning to the United States were
scheduled to give the president an op-
portunity to personally congratulate
the leaders of those countries for what
he called their "remarkable transition
from autocracy to democratic gover-
nment in the last several years."
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