Obama's State of the Union: Pass the Energy Bill
Nice. President Obama used the State of the Union to call for the Senate to pass a comprehensive climate and energy bill. During the early part of his speech he said “This year, I am eager to help advance the bipartisan effort in the Senate,” and:
“[P]roviding incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future — because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation.”
Obama specifically gave a nod to building a new generation of nuclear power plants, “making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development,” (that will no doubt get boos from environmentalists), and more investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies. Phoenix-based electric vehicle charging company ECOtality says they were referenced in the speech. Some will see the mentions of nuclear and offshore oil as “Republican talking points,” but I am heartened that Obama took the opportunity to back the energy bill, despite the recent disappointment in Copenhagen.
See the tag cloud of the speech below – clean and energy front and center:
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Here’s a nice version of a tag cloud…
http://robvstate.com/2010/01/27/tag-cloud-of-obamas-2010-state-of-the-union-address/
I’ll just toss this out there for your information: If you’d care to learn what daily life in a US nuclear plant is actually like and how an accident might unfold, see my novel “Rad Decision”, based on my 20+ years in the nuke industry. Nuclear has its good points and bad points, and this is a good introduction to them. It is free online at http://RadDecision.blogspot.com No advertising, no sponsors, no money for me.
“I’d like to see Rad Decision widely read.” – Stewart Brand, noted futurist, founder of The Whole Earth Catalog
Thanks Rob, that’s a good one
We shared the same great idea!
Can someone tell me when CLEAN ENERGY included “clean” coal, which really doesn’t exist except in the minds of the coal industry, and nuclear power, which is not clean when it poisons thousands in the processing as well as poisoning the land and water itself, became part of this CLEAN ENERGY equation?
Have congressional supporters of this bad policy lost their minds or are they just looking to get re-elected and need money from all these lobbyists?
I think carbon capture and sequestration if it can get a lot cheaper will be an important part of clean energy.
The idea of a “new generation” of new nukes is sheer corporate madness and will not happen. There is no essential difference between the new designs and the old ones and except the $640-million-plus in hype the industry has spent this past decade. Solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, ocean thermal, efficiency, hemp-based biofuels etc. constitute a sustainable “Solartopian” vision that is cheaper, cleaner, safer, reliable and—above all—do-able. Without hundreds billions in subsidies and taxpayer-funded liability insurance, nuke power goes nowhere….which is exactly right.