Lindsey Graham: As Bold As The French

We were in the mood for cheese, so of course had to look in on Wisconsin, where the mood is cheddery smooth:

A proposal that would relax Wisconsin's ban on nuclear reactors and mandate increasing use of renewable energy began its journey through the Legislature on Thursday, with Gov. Jim Doyle asserting that it could create more than 15,000 jobs.

Apparently, the legislation to do this has a problem which need not be one:

The bill would require that any nuclear reactor built in the state be designed to serve the needs of Wisconsin electricity customers only. That could violate the federal Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution, said Rep. Phil Montgomery (R-Ashwaubenon).

We're not sure that Rep. Montgomery is right here but wonder why such a provision is even included. In any event, we should note that no electricity producer can be "designed" to do this - it's a matter of transmission, not generation and since Wisconsin, like every state, is part of a multi-state grid, we're not even sure it's really practical. But that's what the bill's sponsors want.

The bill includes language that would nullify all of the nuclear power changes if a court finds the "Wisconsin only" provision unconstitutional.

All in all, very odd - we're noting some curdy clumps in our queso. This bill has just been proposed - let's see where it goes and what arguments emerge.

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Steve Milloy of JunkScience.com contributes an op-ed to The Washington Times that supports nuclear energy, but is really more an attack on cap-and-trade as a mechanism for controlling carbon emissions. We have no real brief on cap-and-trade vs. a carbon tax vs., well, any other or no mechanism. The world, including the energy sector, will move as it needs to, and how the government decides to apply a push will be subject to review based on its efficacy or lack thereof.

We were more interested in Milloy's rhetoric:

Little discussed is how cap-and-trade is an insidious form of anti-American social engineering.

Cap-and-trade threatens our military preparedness and our national sovereignty.

Seemingly oblivious to how cap-and-trade would force European socialism on America ...

When Neville Chamberlain came back to Britain after negotiating the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler ...

Next time he comes out against (or for) something, Milloy should really consider pulling out the big guns.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sees the value of nuclear energy:

Graham wants to see measures in the bill that make it easier for the nuclear power industry to expand in the United States, and he pointed to South Carolina’s considerable assets in the sector. France gets the majority of its power from nuclear, Graham noted.

“Surely we can be as bold as the French,” he said.

Surely. Graham's participation probably isn't necessary as far as nuclear energy is concerned - many Democrats have turned the corner on that issue - but he adds a valuable voice that may give the legislation a chance at a true bi-partisan profile.

He also said any energy and climate bill he would support must have approval for more domestic drilling rights for oil and natural gas. That would be politically palatable in the Senate, Graham said, and could provide a new revenue stream for states that might have considerable offshore deposits, such as South Carolina.

The bill also should have measures to protect from utility price spikes and could be curtailed if emerging economic powers such as China and India do not strive to curb emissions, he said.

We always respond positively to a broad energy outlook and Graham has one.

Sen. Lindsey Graham.

A Design Team Pictures the Future of Nuclear Energy

For more than 100 years, the shape and location of human settlements has been defined in large part by energy and water. Cities grew up near natural resources like hydropower, and near water for agricultural, industrial and household use.

So what would the world look like with a new generation of small nuclear reactors that could provide abundant, clean energy for electricity, water pumping and desalination and industrial processes?

Hard to say with precision, but Third Way, the non-partisan think tank, asked the design team at the Washington, D.C. office of Gensler & Associates, an architecture and interior design firm that specializes in sustainable projects like a complex that houses the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. The talented designers saw a blooming desert and a cozy arctic village, an old urban mill re-purposed as an energy producer, a data center that integrates solar panels on its sprawling flat roofs, a naval base and a humming transit hub.

In the converted mill, high temperat…

Sneak Peek

There's an invisible force powering and propelling our way of life.
It's all around us. You can't feel it. Smell it. Or taste it.
But it's there all the same. And if you look close enough, you can see all the amazing and wondrous things it does.
It not only powers our cities and towns.
And all the high-tech things we love.
It gives us the power to invent.
To explore.
To discover.
To create advanced technologies.
This invisible force creates jobs out of thin air.
It adds billions to our economy.
It's on even when we're not.
And stays on no matter what Mother Nature throws at it.
This invisible force takes us to the outer reaches of outer space.
And to the very depths of our oceans.
It brings us together. And it makes us better.
And most importantly, it has the power to do all this in our lifetime while barely leaving a trace.
Some people might say it's kind of unbelievable.
They wonder, what is this new power that does all these extraordinary things?

Seeing the Light on Nuclear Energy

If you think that there is plenty of electricity, that the air is clean enough and that nuclear power is a just one among many options for meeting human needs, then you are probably over-focused on the United States or Western Europe. Even then, you’d be wrong.

That’s the idea at the heart of a new book, “Seeing the Light: The Case for Nuclear Power in the 21st Century,” by Scott L. Montgomery, a geoscientist and energy expert, and Thomas Graham Jr., a retired ambassador and arms control expert.

Billions of people live in energy poverty, they write, and even those who don’t, those who live in places where there is always an electric outlet or a light switch handy, we need to unmake the last 200 years of energy history, and move to non-carbon sources. Energy is integral to our lives but the authors cite a World Health Organization estimate that more than 6.5 million people die each year from air pollution. In addition, they say, the global climate is heading for ruinous instability. E…

NEI Nuclear Notes

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