Nuclear Power - A Solution To America's Energy Needs?

[NotNow]

As much as I am shocked to be in agreement with Pee or GG on most anything, there is much truth to the previous posts.  It really is up to us to control our energy use.  While this may be inconvenient, it bodes well for both our personal finances as well as energy independence for our country.  There really is no reason that our governments, which seem to subsidize every widget and whim, can't provide a substantial tax break for installing solar systems on our homes and businesses.   The same for wind (where applicable).   I'm not a fan of the current crop of hybrids and electric cars due to the (relatively) short life of the batteries,  but our automotive engine technologies can cut our transportation fuel use by 25-40% RIGHT NOW.  Of course, we will still need hydrocarbon fuels and power plants and increased capacity, but we must be efficient.  Government blocking new construction refineries and domestic drilling is just stupid, and plays to fear.  We should step back and take a big look at our systems.  We need to utilize diesel technology and support that use with tax credits.  While I am a supporter of nuclear power and it's future, it cannot currently compete on price with natural gas for electrical power generation in this country.

[peestandingup]

As much as I am shocked to be in agreement with Pee or GG on most anything, there is much truth to the previous posts.  It really is up to us to control our energy use.  While this may be inconvenient, it bodes well for both our personal finances as well as energy independence for our country.  There really is no reason that our governments, which seem to subsidize every widget and whim, can't provide a substantial tax break for installing solar systems on our homes and businesses.   The same for wind (where applicable).   I'm not a fan of the current crop of hybrids and electric cars due to the (relatively) short life of the batteries,  but our automotive engine technologies can cut our transportation fuel use by 25-40% RIGHT NOW.  Of course, we will still need hydrocarbon fuels and power plants and increased capacity, but we must be efficient.  Government blocking new construction refineries and domestic drilling is just stupid, and plays to fear.  We should step back and take a big look at our systems.  We need to utilize diesel technology and support that use with tax credits.  While I am a supporter of nuclear power and it's future, it cannot currently compete on price with natural gas for electrical power generation in this country.

Thanks. With problems like these, I tend to take a step back & look at the broad spectrum instead of the just the here & now, or what we could do to put a band-aid on things (cause that's what we've been doing). And it's like you said, this is NOTHING that we can't start making significant impacts to curb. Those things I mentioned are so easy for us to do, but we don't do them. And we should have been for decades now.

And I hate to keep bringing Jimmy carter up. I mean, I don't necessarily think he was even a good President, but my God. He had is SO right with this. 30 years later, it's almost haunting to listen to him talk about this:

His famous "Malaise Speech":

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7ysc1P1sH4
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXvGKJF2XQU
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aOMNgxRF2M
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xivhdO_LbGw

Part 3 & 4 are especially troubling. You can hear in his voice & see in his eyes how much this bothered him & how much he believed we were on the path of self-destruction with our energy consumption, lack of exploring alternatives & crappy public transit options. Seems to me the he was laying it down straight up to the American people, but they didn't wanna hear it.

[Lunican]

This is an interesting graph:



Full Size: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/LLNL_US_Energy_Flow_2009.png