[ExI] EP and Peak oil

[Kevin Freels]

Richard Loosemore wrote:
> Kevin Freels wrote:
>
>   
>>> Overall I am optimistic that this can be done, but not if people are 
>>> locked into a mindset in which the main problem with the nuclear 
>>> industry is that idiot environmentalists have been bollixing the work of 
>>> the captains of industry.
>>>
>>>       
>> There is however some subtle truth to this. I wouldn't say many are 
>> locked into a "mindset" about this. I think Eli was just acknowledging 
>> that the modern day environmentalist movement is indeed the main reason 
>> nuclear power has been much ignored while we continue to burn off our 
>> fossil fuels. There is some good debate here as to whether or not global 
>> warming is caused by these emissions or even whether or not global 
>> warming itself is bad. But for the most part everyone here knows that an 
>> alternative needs to be found long before the oil runs out so this issue 
>> trumps global warming. I personally like the green people - until they 
>> stand in the way of progress. But many get their priorities out of whack 
>> so while Eli's statement may not apply to everyone that is "green, it 
>> certainly applies to many.
>>     
>
> Sorry, but I just don't accept the analysis.
>
> In the 1960s and 70s the greens lobbied hard for less nuclear power and 
> massive funding of sustainable energy.  Result:  nothing happened.
>
> Then Three Mile Island and Chernobyl happened, and nuclear was suddenly 
> scary as hell.  Overnight, no new plants.
>
> Then the greens continued to lobby hard for massive funding of 
> sustainable energy.  Result:  nothing happened.
>
> Then 9/11 and Iraq happened and oil started increasing in price at a 
> rate that was actually noticeable, and now suddenly nuclear is back on 
> the agenda.
>
> If you see, in this pattern, the pernicious influence of the green 
> lobby, then what you are seeing, I suggest, is only the blood-stained 
> back of a whipping boy.
>
>
>   
I see where you are coming from. And yes, markets are much more powerful 
than any activist group could be. It takes markets to get things done. 
Activists can only stop things from being done. It's two different 
things. We're not talking about what the green movement has 
accomplished. We are talking about what they have prevented. Ask some 
average people on the street sometime if they would like to see nuclear 
power plants spring up all over America as a solution to the oil 
problems. When they tell you "no", ask why. I am sure you will get an 
environmental argument long before you get a nuclear weapons or economic 
argument.
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