GO NUCLEAR

A liberal's favorite way of accusing someone of being a neanderthal right wing fascist is to simply say, "You just don't get it." I have to confess: when it comes to global warming, I just don't get it. These global warming doomsayers and scare mongers are constantly telling us that the world is about to end. If we don't do something within the next few years that significantly lowers carbon emissions--and lowers economic output and our standard of living (they don't tell us that)--then we are past the point of no return. It will then be only a matter of time before the Stature of Liberty is up to her nostrils in water and Florida no longer exists except as a modern version of Atlantis. A compliant media happily passes on these hysterics as the gospel truth.

Okay, say I buy the global warming argument, swallow it hook, line, sinker. Suppose I'm ready to blindly put my faith in these UN computer simulations that claim to accurately predict what the weather will be like a hundred years from now (and my local weatherman has a hard time predicting what next week's weather will be!). Let's pretend I'm ready to agree with Al Gore that the debate is closed, that anybody who disagrees with anything that he has to say is a "denier," a dope, or else in the pocket of Big Oil. (Why is it that anyone who disagrees with a liberal is either stupid or corrupt? Can't they ever argue the issues?)

Assuming all this, my immediate, logical, natural reaction would be that we need to build nuclear power plants, as many as we can and as fast as we can. The President and Congress should waive all environmental and other regulatory red tape that constrains the building of nuclear power plants. Moreover, the federal government should offer financial guarantees and other direct monetary incentives toward the development of nuclear power, just as it does with ethanol, solar, wind energy. After all, nuclear energy has zero carbon emissons and has shown that it is capable of supplying massive amounts of energy, just as it does in France or Japan. Even the most ardent supporter of solar and wind power will admit that it will take many decades before either of those supply a significant percentage of our energy needs. And we don't have that much time, according to the global warmies. Action must be taken now because the fate of civilization and Mother Nature Herself hang in the balance.

So why am I greatly surprised to still hear that most environmentalists oppose nuclear power? Obama's latest budget has tons of goodies for non-carb0n energy but not a penny of incentives for nuclear. Like I said before, I just don't get it. Do environmentalist believe that nuclear power is dangerous, even though no one has ever died from the use of nuclear power in the US, or in France and Japan for that matter? Environs are quick to point to Chernobyl as a example of what can go wrong with nuclear energy. But the plant at Chernobyl is a Model-T compared to modern day nuclear facilities. Plants today have multiple layers of safety features and the release of radiation from such a plant is a nil possibility. Natural gas is considered a relatively clean form of energy but tens of thousands of people die every year from natural gas explosions; yet, no one is saying prohibit the use of natural gas.

Another concern that some raise is spent nuclear fuel. Most reactors store spent fuel at facilities on site. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1987 designated a facility in Nevada's Yucca Mountains as the central repository for nuclear waste. But that numb skull, Senator Reid, has singly-handed blocked this repository from being developed, despite the support of 39 states that have nuclear waste and with the acquiescence of Obama.

Who knows why environmentalists are so adamantly opposed to nuclear power. To truly understand why, one would have to untangle the innumerable knots and strands that constitute the liberal mind. Suffice it to say that their opposition to nuclear power gives the lie to the doomsday prophesying. It's hard to believe that these environs really believe their own rants and raves about global warming when they block the one means that can truly do something about it.