Who is for nukes? Some see the light on energy needs

HERE IS AN ANGLE to the issue of energy costs and production that may be of particular interest here in New Hampshire, home of the Seabrook nuclear plant: A co-founder of the Greenpeace enviornmental group has joined with a former EPA head to promote nuclear energy.

Patrick Moore told the New York Times that Greenpeace was wrong to oppose nuclear energy. He called it essential to reducing global warming gases.

Christie Whitman, former EPA chief for President Bush, said none of the various means being touted to reduce such global warming emissions “will have as great a positive impact on our environment as will increasing our ability to generate electricity from nuclear power.”

The nuclear industry will pay for a new campaign involving Moore and Whitman. No doubt anti-nukes will accuse them of “selling out.” But that is hard to do here. Both individuals have a strong record of environmentalism.

Their nuclear push is all the more relevant with the latest report last week warning that New England’s electricity grid is stretched to the breaking point.

It is foolish for a lot of reasons to use up fossil fuels in the production of electricity when nuclear power, in this country and in France, has proven to be safe and efficient. The Seabrook plant, which has a strong safety record, has been providing much-needed electricity for decades now. Its costs wouldn’t have been nearly so high had not its opponents thrown up so many roadblocks and helped to bankrupt the old Public Service Company.

Sensible solutions to our serious problems often take a back seat to pure politics. One factor contributing to higher gasoline prices, for instance, is the federal government’s demand that more ethanol be used as an additive to lessen smog. But ethanol is difficult to ship and is thus very costly at any distance from its Midwest production base.

Meanwhile, environmentalist overkill continues to frustrate attempts to explore for oil and gas; efforts to build refineries in the United States are blocked in anyone and everyone’s backyard; and Teddy Kennedy and his neighbors complain about a wind power project that would interfere with their views from Cape Cod.

Americans have got to wake up and demand a sensible energy policy or we are going to be so far behind the competitive curve that we will never recover.