Does the Right Wing Hate Clean Energy?
In an average week, I get a couple of invitations to be on radio programs whose hosts want a guest to speak on clean energy. Here’s a typical request that I got just a few hours ago, to which I gladly assented:
I’m a talk radio host/producer at … and would like to set up an interview regarding clean energy. With the nuclear crisis in Japan, and renewed worries concerning plants in the US, Middle East unrest and rising oil prices, and the demonization of wind & solar energy from the right, I think there’s plenty of ample reasons to discuss your book and thoughts on these and other topics. The station number is ..
OK, the guy’s grammar is an issue.
“There’s plenty of reasons” needs to read “there are plenty of reasons” (agreement of subject and verb)
and
“plenty of ample reasons” needs to read “ample reasons” (“ample” means “plenty”)
Just kidding here of course; this isn’t a website on grammar. And that’s a good thing, because readers sometimes point out errors in mine.
But I am interested in exploring the “demonization of wind & solar energy from the right.” Though many readers have suggested that such a trend exists, I can’t believe it’s true. What’s to demonize? Energy that doesn’t kill people? An energy policy that doesn’t impoverish our country, empower our sworn enemies — and leaves the planet clean and safe for coming generations? Wouldn’t it be a kind of warped person who would attack this notion?
……………………………………………….Uranium is not exactly a rare mineral by any standard. The concentration of uranium in the earths crust is 2.7 PPM significantly more than tin silver cadmium and bismuth. In some areas it has much higher concentrations and enormous deposits of high grade ore have remain relatively untapped…Compared to chemical fuels like hydrocarbons the energy density of uranium even in a standard is greater. Yet even this represents only a maximum of a few percent of the potential energy that can be produced from the uranium. Reprocessing can more than triple the energy extracted and advanced fuel cycles and fast spectrum reactors can increase the energy extracted to near 100 ..If thats not abundant enough thorium is more than three times as abundant as uranium and like the can extract virtually all the energy available from thorium. Indeed between s and spent uranium fuel there is already enough energy to last humanity many decades even if no additional mining took place..So to those of us familiar with uranium and nuclear energy its absolutely no surprise to hear that current uranium reserves are not in any danger of running out despite what some have claimed in an attempt to derail support for nuclear energy. Yet a study from MIT which has reaffirmed this has been making a lot of news recently..