The "Nuclear Rennaisance" is over

As the Middle East has destabilized and British Petroleum dumped thousands of tons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, nuclear-power advocates were seeing a sudden rise in interest in building new, safer power plants. The idea was that modern Nuclear Power was far safer than the days of 3 Mile Island or Chernobyl, so America could power herself without Mideast Oil and without fear of Meltdown. But news of as many as 6 reactors failing in post-tsunami Japan including one which is probably in the middle of a partial meltdown has likely doomed this nascent movement toward energy independence. After all, what politician or regulator is going to approve a new power plant (even a modern, safer one) with smoking radioactive ruins across the Pacific Ocean?

Update 6:02 am: A good summary of worst-case scenarios and an explanation of why Japan was unprepared for this nuclear crisis.

Solar Freeze is the worst idea this year

I usually try to keep weekends light, but I am still furious about the announcement yesterday to suspend all solar power building for two years on Federal Lands. Some have said to me "Well, that does not affect private land, so it is no big deal." Here is an article showing exactly how much land is tied up in the Bureau of Land Management which would be PRIME for Solar Power building.

Let me say it again. If the Bush administration or Congress does not reverse this decision by July 4, they ALL deserve to be thrown out of office. I include in that evaluation Barack Obama and John McCain. Supporting or ignoring this move displays complete incompetence at best, or simple corruption at worst.

Feds freeze solar power building

So, you're facing an mounting energy crisis with oil at $4+/gallon and looking to reach $5/gallon by summer's end. Everyone and their brother are crying out for alternative energy sources, and the solar power community is rolling out breakthrough after breakthrough to make solar energy production cheaper and easier. So what do you do? Well, if you are the Federal Government, you announce a 2-year freeze on building new solar power plants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/us/27solar.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1214584113-v3z1P+TfnrPGbc97b/n4hw

That's right. At the HEIGHT of an energy crisis, we are cutting off the cleanest form of energy available "for environmental concerns." If Congress or the Bush Administration does not reverse this order by July 4, they all DESERVE to be thrown out of office in November. This is not just the usual government foolishness, this is downright criminal.

Newt calls war on terror 'phony'

In a speech the other day, Newt Gingrich said that we are waging a phony war on terror. His point was not that there is not a war to be waged on terror groups, but that the way we have been approaching it has not been realistic.

"We've been engaged in a phony war," said Gingrich. "The only people who have been taking this seriously are the combat military."

I think that this is a serious critique of the way the war has been run - as opposed to when Edwards called it a bumper sticker war and totally discounted that it needed to be waged. Gingrich's point on the other hand was that if we want to win then we need to take out those things that support terror groups - namely monetary support, of which a large part comes from middle east oil. Energy independence was where he was going. I think he made a good point, though I think that the use of the word 'phony' might have been over stating the case - surely used for dramatic effect, he knew what he was doing.

I know there are some ethical concerns about him as a presidential candidate, but when listening to him work out a lot of the current issues in American politics makes me wonder if he really is the best person for the job. Granted right now he gets to work in general political theory and not actually have to work with others on the issues. At the very least he would make political debates interesting.