Balancing Energy Needs and the Environment

Over at Complex Systems, Tyler Newton is thinking about the long term effects of Hurricane Katrina on U.S. energy policy:

The amount of investment in US energy infrastructure is set to explode, and the Republican-led government is about to help it happen. That means some combination of: drilling in Alaska, federal control over siting of LNG terminals, mining for oil shale in Colorado, more offshore drilling for natural gas outside the Gulf, unified rules for refinery grades, more refinery construction, more nuclear power plants, use of Yucca Mountain to store nuclear waste, a wave of utility mergers, rules to encourage distributed energy, investments in coal gasification plants, investments in mining the Alberta Tar Sands and, oh yeah, an increase in fuel efficiency standards.

The electorate fears the idea of gas shortages about as much as it does terrorism. While on average Americans are moderate environmentalists, they are not reactionary like environmental activists, and will not let parochial interests deny them they energy they need for a prosperous future.

Here's how our President and CEO, Skip Bowman, put it in a speech today to the World Nuclear Association Symposium in London:

I want to say a few words about unfinished business -- specifically, the work still ahead of us if we hope to fulfill President Eisenhower's vision (Atoms for Peace), and ensure that the world meets a growing appetite for electric power in a way that protects our environment.

We do not have to pick between the two. We can have more electricity to power future economic growth. We can have clean air. With nuclear energy, we can have both.

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