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<br />local interests as they develop their own attieudes and policies on <br />weather modification. <br /> <br />o Social Costs and Legal Liability. Legal liabili ty issues will <br />continue to be resolved through proof of cause and effect by <br />presentation of controversies to the court of law. However. the <br />possible disproportionate distribution of costs and benefits <br />requires consideration of compensation schemes for persons suffering <br />losses as a result of weather modification. Mechanisms will be <br />identified that are suitable for reimbursing communities for costs <br />legitimately incurred as the direct result of weather modification <br />activities as well as individuals who IllaY be "losers" due to induced <br />changes in weather conditions. Current discussions include a type <br />of "no fault" insurance fund, payment of proven actual losses <br />through an administrative-law proceeding, establishment of a fund <br />from profits derived from successful weather modification (such as <br />additional waeer for power or agricultural production), and no <br />payments at allan the grounds that losers and winners are a <br />traditionally acceptable result of all technological advancement by <br />society. As the scientific certainty of the location and magnitude <br />of effects improves, both the interest and ability to select an <br />approach to compensation and liability will increase. <br /> <br />o Regulation. While the Federal government has no regulations guiding <br />weather modification other than a reporting requirement. and no new <br />regulations are felt to be required, this aspect will be monitored <br />and action suggested as experience with the technology demonstrates <br />the need for such regulation. <br /> <br />In addition to research focusing on specific sites, a research effort <br />directed toward synthesiZing environmental, legal. economic, and social <br />information is needed -- the technology assessment. Relying heavily on the <br />organization of existing data bases, these assessments will systematically <br />explore the direct and indirect consequences of using a developing <br />technology. The assessments will seek to identify. in advance, issues that <br />may become the focus of social conflict and political debate, including higher <br />order, unintended consequences. The assessments should include a description <br />of possible future scenarios based on different assumptions about political. <br />economic, and social changes; the rate of implementation of the technology; <br />the degree of private sector and government involvement and regulation; and <br />the distribution or socioeconomic costs and benefits. <br /> <br />The principal use of technology assessment as a public policy tool is to <br />improve specification of alternative policy choices and their probable <br />outcomes. Such policy choices fall into roughly three nona~clusive <br />categories--policies that promote technological development; policies that are <br />permissive and let development take its course; and policies that inhibit, <br />regulate. and control. For the results of a technology assessment to be <br />useful in public policy formation, the problematic issues that affect and are <br />affected by choices must be identified. Although identifying these issues is <br />one of the most difficult tasks in a technology assessment, it is also the <br /> <br />- 46 - <br />