The conventional wisdom among corporate pundits has long been that Democrats have to move to the right in order to win. You’re likely to hear a lot of this after Tuesday, but there’s already plenty of advice being offered in advance of the Democrats’ likely midterm defeat.
Time‘s Joe Klein has his take in the new issue of the magazine (11/8/10). He writes that “with the prospect of a Congress tilted toward the right, Obama will have to figure out new ways to sell his wares, if he can sell them at all.” Klein urges Obama to think big–and to think nuclear:
If Obama wants to get a major stimulus program through the next Congress, he should propose the National Defense Nuclear Power Act. And make it big: a plan to blast past the current financing and licensing quagmires and break ground on 25 new nuclear plants between now and 2015.
Klein adds:
Some environmentalists still see nuclear power as unclean, though their argument has been wilting over time as France and Japan, among others, have proved the safety and efficacy of such power and climate change has emerged as our most pressing environmental problem. There will be those who argue, correctly, that given the current abundance of natural gas, nuclear power is too expensive–but it won’t be in the future, and the price can be dramatically reduced if the government provides direct, no-interest construction loans rather than loan guarantees.
It’s worth recalling that Obama has already made one substantial step in the pro-nuclear direction this year, providing billions in loan guarantees fora new nuclearplant in Georgia(a move some in the media embraced).
The objection fromanti-nuclear environmentalists is not that it’s merely “unclean”–though that isa serious concern. Despite massive amounts of government assistance, the industry hasn’t convinced Wall Street investors thatnuclear power isa profitable business. Klein’s answer seems to be more corporate welfareto prop upan industry already long dependent on substantial government support.
It goes without saying that the progressive base of the Democratic party is where you’re most likely to find opposition to nuclear power–which is probably a big part of what makes calling for Obama to embrace it seem so appealing to bash-your-base pundits like Joe Klein.
Klein’s preference for billions to be appropriated to promote the nuclear energy industry seems to be shared by the majority of bipartisan fetishists. In addition to the points made above, there are addional expenses in operational costs and the back end, when those nuke plants must be decommissioned, and the cost of storing the waste safely for thousands of years. There’s a reason nuclear is called the most expensive way to boil water.
In contrast, for the $10billion per nuke plant and current estimate of ten years to construct per plant, you could build ten $1 billion solar plants and a new electric grid, and have it all operational in less than half the time.
And thereafter, the fuel is free. Forever.
Speaking of boiling water, recently during a Florida drought, there was realistic concern that a plant there might run short on the water needed to cool. Water is also an issue.
The problems with nuclear energy remain. The plants have cost overuns in the construction phase. There are ever present dangers in their operation and maintenance. The spent fuel rods are dangerous for tens of thousands of years, and there is no current viable solutiion for safely storing or disposing of nuclear waste. The waste also presents a problem in that it can be used, in the wrong hands,, for processing into materials for use in nuclear weapons, thus presenting an issue with regard to terrorists obtaining it. In the age of terrorism, nuclear plants present difficult problems with regard to safety. Other than the aforementioned issues, no problem with nukes. Maybe the thing to do here is an effort to do the research that will make these plants and their waste safe. In the meantime, no thanks.
They also say that such plants are not vunerable to infiltration and sabotage but it has happened. Or should I say could have. And as for the plants the best kind of sabotage would be to block the water cooling vents or the water flow itself. Or they could just work for a plant then at the opportune time wreck it. Now to do that to a solar thermal or solar electric would cause problems but no melt down or rain or ionized radiation particles.
If they build 100 square miles of the most up-to-date solar panels in the Nevada desert it would generate enough electricity for the USA. The same if they build the wind generators in the high wind corridors in the middle of the USA. That’s not even counting putting solar collectors on every building in the country. And for those without–paint it white to reflect sun back when the clouds are absent.
Exhaust the other cleaner, cheaper methods first then we will take a hard look a nuclear. But only then.
The way this guy thinks! What a strange, disturbed, and disturbing fellow (“Obama will have to figure out new ways to sell his wares . . . ” huh?) Very, very bad.
The Department of Energy is now seriously considering a $7.5 Billion dollar loan guarantee to the French energy giant Energy De Francais (EDF) that has bought a major stake in the Calvert Cliffs,MD nuclear plant. They seriously want to pay French company to mamage and run nucler power plants in the United States.
The only way for Democrats to win is to be Republicans? Funny how “Freudian” our political conversations are slipping…
I sure hope Ralph Nader can find the strength and motivation to run again in 2012, and that knuckle-headed ego-trips like Michael Moore will get behind him this time instead of on his back, which would be giving the opposition exactly what they want…
Actually some good thoughts here.This is a hard nut.The shame is no real discussions go on do to the politics.From what i see all forms of power are grudgingly (except green)talked about on the left.Really they lean toward shelving damn near everything.And too easily passed in the muster phase on the right. Fracking ect…..We can do this any way we choose.But it has to all be on the table
I’ve written about this subject, and I can tell you that nuclear power is an economic, safety *and* environmental disaster, and far from carbon-neutral when you look at the entire fuel cycle.
In fact, just this morning, I sent a letter to Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu which began, “Nuclear power is neither green nor efficient, and it’s highly dangerous on a number of fronts. All calculations that show a low carbon footprint are based on looking only at the plant itself, and not all the steps that need to happen in order to run a nuclear plant, starting with mining. Some studies have shown that this dangerous and unreliable technology may actually be a net consumer of energy, and it is certainly a net emitter of carbon.”
If you want more details, here’s a blog post I did a while back: http://principledprofit.com/good-business-blog/four-reasons-why-nuclear-power-is-a-terrible-way-to-generate-energy/2005/12/04/
“The reality of France’s aggressive nuclear power push”
http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/op-eds/the-reality-of-frances-aggressive-nuclear-power-push
An alternate path:
Carbon-Free And Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy (Paperback)
http://www.amazon.com/Carbon-Free-Nuclear-Free-Roadmap-Energy-Policy/dp/157143173X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288487947&sr=1-1
I have come around on nuclear energy after living in Sacramento for years and rejecting Rancho-Seco’s abortion of “cheap” electric energy. The plant at ranco Seco was down almost as much as it operated, and the people in the area became frustrated with the inefficiency of nuke power. However, technology is vastly improving and changing the public’s perception of the boondoggle that characterized nuclear power.
By all means, America should invest in solar. We recently installed panels and are reaping the benefits. Just today I attended a meeting of neighbors who have gone solar. We love it.
Please lobby Congress to demand electric cars, but electric cars MADE IN AMERICA (Support our neighbors, not the Chinese or Indian electric car makers).
Finally, our military is the prime polluter on the planet. We must trim our trillion a year budget, a great part of which is fossil fuel. Demand Congress end the four (4) wars we currently are waging: Afghanistan, Iraq (50,000 occupying troops), Pakistan (drones have murdered 1,000 to eliminate 50 “terrorist” suspects), and Palestine where the bush supplied bombs and missiles to murder almost 2,000 Gazans (that’s war). (This century America will lose 10,000,000 people to a nuclear attack in response to our terrorism, probably in Los Angeles or San Francisco unless we stop murdering innocent people or providing bombs for such purposes.)
Wind power, yes! And ocean energy as the Brits are currently doing. We do not need to be held hostage to Big Oil.
FRank…
The minute you said lobby Congress to demand…………..you lost me.Congress shall not DEMAND anything from a free people.WE shall demand that congress mind its own damn business.Make it well.Make it profitable.And they will come…..As far as being hit by a nuclear attack Im wit ya.But nothing we do to coddle these animals will delay their attack one millisecond.They hate who we are ..what we are…from the moment of our birth irregardless of what we do.Do you honestly understand these people to believe that by showing our backs we will not be shown their knives?