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North Star Writers Group – Syndicated Commentary: Opinion, Humor and Features

Conservatives Love Nuclear Energy, But Their Vaunted Free Market Does Not
North Star Writers’ Group September 9, 2008

“………………………there is something that nuclear power hasn’t been, which is an attractive investment for private capital. That, not hairy-arm-pitted environmentalists, is why nuclear energy went cold soon after Three Mile Island, not because of the incident itself. If environmental concerns and safety issues were all that were necessary to derail an entire industry, the nation would not today be dependent on coal energy, what with its high-profile links to pollution and global warming, and high-profile disasters getting it out of the ground…………………..

Nuclear energy today has its strongest support among conservatives, who’ve latched onto it presumably because after two decades of being wrong about global warming and the costs of a fossil fuel-based economy, nuclear gets them a foot back into the door. Many talk glowingly out of one side of their mouths about the glories of the market, which separates the men from the boys through competition, where the best wins out – if only government would get out of the way. From the other side of the mouth comes talk about nuclear energy, and they point to France as a model of how to do nuclear right.

The problem is that France, like most countries, doesn’t operate its utilities based on the free market.

Tags: nuclear.antinuclear, radiation, uranium

September 9, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics