Oh Hawk,
Re: But as I recall, you weren't all too favorably disposed to increased drilling in Alaska, or building more Nukes (despite modern designs being nearly accident proof)... :0)
Now, now. There's nowhere in the record that says I am opposed the rape of ANWR. I lived up in Juneau for several years in the '80's and I helped my fellow Alaskans spend the windfall largesse that the insane oil market of the early '80's permitted. It was a great time to be alive. <gg>
My view on ANWR is as I stated above, it's a rape & pillage show for a good cause. The best thing that the environmentalist crowd can hope for is that it happens fast, and that it's over soon. The sooner the presumed petroleum is poured out of the Porcupine Valley,
the sooner the clouds of mosquitos can resume their feast on the caribou herd in isolation from the roughneck crowd.
Then again, you completely misread me on the nuke issue. There too, I'm in the development crowd. I've admired the experience of the French national system. They did a wonderful job of controlling the hysterias of the general public while building a reasonably safe and sustainable industry. And excellent sysnopsis of the case for nuclear energy was provide by one of my favorite authors, Richard Rhodes, in Foreign Affairs Magazine. Here's a link:
c-n-t-a.com
So, you got me pegged wrong on these two issues. Sorry. I'll do my best to try to be contrary again, however...... <bg>
Re: If there's one rule of thumb for sustained economic growth, it's that there must be access to inexpensive energy.
I couldn't agree with you more. Hydro is a perfect example that was a brilliant solution..... in the 1930's. Today, the exciting news is in windpower, which is now being developed at about 5 cents per kwh. Within the decade, solar power will be just as viable.
It is only the neanderthals like the current administration who lack the vision to get us off the petroleum teat, and seem doomed to mire the American economy and its psyche and citizens in an unwinnable quagmire with medievalists like the Al Qaeda zealots.
JMO, Ray
PS: Here's the quick take on Chalmers Johnson's Blowback theory:
thenation.com |
