On Tuesday, President Bush held his second news conference in two weeks – and it was interesting. First, he is clearly frustrated with our current do-nothing obstructionist congress, and he is finally standing up and challenging them. Second, he demonstrated command of facts and clear thinking on the many complex challenges our country is facing.
Many press questions focused on energy and the same old saws – are the oil companies really drilling where they already have leases; can’t we solve the problem by conserving; why shouldn’t we focus on “alternative energy;” drilling more won’t solve the problem immediately and therefore it is not worth doing; etc.
For many years, I worked developing data processing systems. Again and again some senior company official would ask how long it would take to develop some new system. Whatever the answer, it was usually "too long." Six months later the same official would ask the same question, and again after another six months. The fact that it will take “too long” was always a reason not to start. The real problem was they wanted easy answers and never had the commitment or courage to see a tough project through. As President Bush pointed out, his administration wanted to begin expanding energy drilling and production seven years ago. Had that happened, we would be in a completely different place now. Whatever happened to our country that could "put a man on the moon by the end of the decade" (JFK 1960) and to leaders who could stand up to such a challenge?
One of the most promising and least understood sources of alternative energy is nuclear. Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College recently published an excellent article on all energy alternatives, with a clear explanation of nuclear including the issue of nuclear waste. Below is a link to the article:
http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2008&month=02
If you have not heard of/do not subscribe to Imprimis, you might want to. You can request the hard copy be mailed to you - and it's free! The articles are always informative and well-done.
There are many causes for the rapid rise in the price of oil and one of the causes is speculators.
ReplyDeleteFor this, we can thank Bill Clinton. One of his last act before leaving office was the deregulation of energy futures.
According to a June 2006 US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report, US energy futures historically "were traded exclusively on regulated exchanges within the United States... The trading of energy commodities by large firms on OTC electronic exchanges was exempted from (federal) oversight by a provision inserted at the behest of Enron and other large energy traders into the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000." The bill was signed into law by Bill Clinton, in one of his last acts in office.
The only real problem with nuclear energy is the disposal of waste. For Yucca Mt. Senator Harry Reid is requiring that geologists, and therefore the administration, guarantee that the stored waste will be safely enclosed for 1,000,000 years. No respectable geologist will make that guarantee. Based on some 20 years of study, the site appears to be geologically stable. The only solution is for Reid to change his mind, or to simply impose eminent domain, and start storing the encapsulated waste now. SRS has had to build a second storage facility for its encapulated waste because of the delays at Yucca Mt.
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats seem to be opposed to every form of energy available to us. Despite the fact that 80% of France is powered by nuclear power plants, meaning they do not need as much imported oil, the Democrats have successfully demonized nuclear energy and banned the industry from building safe and clean fifth-generation power plants. France is getting so much cheap energy through its nuclear power they are now the world's largest exporter of electric power. The last nuclear reactor built in the US was built in 1977.
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