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Politics : The Left Wing Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (2147)	12/28/2000 11:15:35 AM
From: Poet	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6089

Hi Ray, What a great basket of articles! Thank you so much. I love Molly Ivins, laughed heartily when I read the article you linked to, particularly this paragraph: Best Candidate of the Year: The late Mel Carnahan of Missouri, and may I say I think he'd make a better attorney general than John Ashcroft, too. I'd never read anything by Hightower and it was comforting to read his plainspoken reporting on female politicians in Maine. I'll keep my eye out for him. On the article about energy, this is one of my weak points, I've got to admit. My eyes roll into the back of my head. Not good. What's your take on the points made in the article?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (2147)	12/28/2000 1:30:58 PM
From: hobo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6089

from your energy related article: Most of the world’s energy today comes from petroleum (39.5 percent), coal (24.2 percent), natural gas (22.1 percent), hydroelectric power (6.9 percent), and nuclear power (6.3 percent). Although oil and coal still dominate, their market fraction began declining decades ago. Meanwhile, natural gas and nuclear power have steadily increased their share and should continue to do so. Contrary to the assertions of antinuclear organizations, nuclear power is neither dead nor dying. no, nuclear power is not dead or dying --but the clients soon will be (gggg) actually, what caught my eye was the natural gas thing... and also this: Average production costs for nuclear energy are now just 1.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), while electricity produced from gas costs 3.4 cents per kWh. Meanwhile, radiation exposure to workers and waste produced per unit of energy have hit new lows. i think i would prefer to pay 1.5 (or nearly 80 % MORE), than expose myself to the "new low hits of radiation" (ggg). in addition... NATURAL GAS has many virtues as a fuel compared to coal or oil, and its share of the world’s energy will assuredly grow in the first half of the 21st century. But its supply is limited and unevenly distributed, it is expensive as a power source compared to coal or uranium, and it pollutes the air. A 1,000-MWe natural gas plant releases 5.5 tonnes of sulfur oxides per day, 21 tonnes of nitrogen oxides, 1.6 tonnes of carbon monoxide, and 0.9 tonnes of particulates. In the United States, energy production from natural gas released about 5.5 billion tonnes of waste in 1994. Natural gas fires and explosions are also significant risks. A single mile of gas pipeline three feet in diameter at a pressure of 1,000 pounds per square inch (psi) contains the equivalent of two-thirds of a kiloton of explosive energy; a million miles of such large pipelines lace the earth. while it is not as clean as gas producers would want you to think... its growth is guaranteed in the first part of the 21st. century. By comparison, nuclear accidents have been few and minimal ah yes, lucky we have been !... i wonder where would we be if we had a "few" more of them... A NEW GENERATION of small, modular power plants—competitive with natural gas and designed for safety, proliferation resistance, and ease of operation—will be necessary to extend the benefits of nuclear power to smaller developing countries that lack a nuclear infrastructure. The Department of Energy has awarded funding to three designs for such "fourth-generation" plants. A South African utility, Eskom, has announced plans to market a modular gas-cooled pebble-bed reactor that does not require emergency core-cooling systems and physically cannot "melt down." Eskom estimates that the reactor will produce electricity at around 1.5 cents per kWh, which is cheaper than electricity from a combined-cycle gas plant. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory are developing a similar design to supply high-temperature heat for industrial processes such as hydrogen generation and desalinization. hmmm i wonder how our friends of the third world will be "managing" nuclear power. they have not managed "population explosion" very well, have WE ? (yes the first world included). i would say... i would vote for more sex education, including the distribution of ALL kinds of contraceptives, LESS laws that oppose such distributions. then, we may not have to pay such high prices for natural gas, and we would actually increase our standard of living... unless the nuclear industry can SUBSTANTIALLY AND FIRMLY reduce the inherent risk of radiation, I will still go for Gas... which brings me to the real point: opensecrets.org and finally.... Message 15080914 i think i will invest a little in DYN - NYSE (ah yes, this is the REAL REAL point) (ggg) Dynegy, Inc i will leave the political implications discussions to the more versed in such... er... activities.