From the Boston Globe: “The pendulum swings back towards nuclear power”
Fast-forward to today. In case you hadn't noticed, the price of oil has gone up a lot -- to about $64 a barrel. The price of natural gas -- the most popular fuel source in New England's power plants -- has gone up even more sharply. Utilities that venture out to buy electricity in the spot market are paying three times as much for power as they did a year ago. Consumers could pay about 20 percent more for electricity this winter, largely because of higher oil and gas prices.On “Meet the Press” this morning, NY Times columnist Tom Friedman explained why an Apollo-style mission for energy independence is critical for our national security. He’s not wrong. Unfortunately, nobody wants to make the sacrifices necessary for genuine independence including building more oil refineries, boosting domestic production of oil and natural gas and, yes, nuclear power plants. If anything, our energy problems will be exacerbated as nuclear plants, which provide 20% of all electricity in America, are decommissioned over the next quarter-century.
1 comment:
I can't see us even beginning on new nuclear plants until brownouts and blackouts become commonplace across America.
$5/gal gas won't do it, and doubled and tripled home energy costs won't, either. Those will be seen as political problems to be solved by taxation and regulation. And at any suggestion of building new nukes to provide energy the howls of the enviros will yea verily break the skies. But when the power starts going out...in January in Michigan, or August in Arizona...Mr. and Mrs. America are going to tell the watermelons to go pound sand.
--Toren
Post a Comment