19 June 2008

A retraction


In my latest political rantings post, I said Senator McCain does not support nuclear power.

Well, I messed up on that one. The New York Times reports he wants 45 new nuclear reactors to be built in America by 2030. The Times also says McCain has long supported using nuclear energy.

So there we go. Thanks for correcting me, leftist newspaper.

Though I enjoy how you couched a reference to the Three Mile Island incident.

Although there has been a shift of opinion in the industry and among some environmentalists toward more nuclear power — it is clean and far safer than at the time of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 — most environmentalists are skeptical of the latest claims by its advocates. They also say that no utility will put its own financing into building a plant unless the federal government lavishly subsidizes it.


No mention that there were zero casualties at Three Mile? Zero injuries? Tiny amounts of radiation leaked? Of course not. The more you ignore those facts, New York Times, they more you can push the radical environmentalist agenda of "We Should Just Walk Everywhere."

Finding I was wrong about McCain prompted me to dig more deeply into Senator Obama's policies regarding this nuclear energy. I found this on his site:

Nuclear power represents more than 70 percent of our noncarbon-generated electricity. It is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power from the table. However, there is no future for expanded nuclear without first addressing four key issues: public right-to-know, security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation. Barack Obama introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to establish guidelines for tracking, controlling and accounting for spent fuel at nuclear power plants.


Well, it's good that he admits that we will need to use nuclear power, but he couches it in terms of stopping global warming, and not energy independence, which isn't entirely surprising. It also appears he needs a lot more federal government involvement in nuclear energy if he is going to support it. I am willing to bet that not a single nuclear power plant will be built during his presidency. I could be wrong, but that's the interpretation I see here.

Obama supporters, feel free to correct me.

Anyway, now McCain has three things going for him: conservative Supreme Court judges, nuclear power and our staying in Iraq until the job is done. I might end up voting for the guy after all. We'll see.

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