Michael Shellenberger fills in for John & Ken. He spends the first hour of the show talking with guests about the world’s energy crisis.
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From the Observer
As the earth warms at a daunting pace and the war in Ukraine sends gas and oil prices skyrocketing, nuclear power is starting to look like a much more appealing option. Even some passionate antinuclear activists have come around, and now view the dangers of fossil fuels as much more worrisome than issues related to nuclear power.
The worldwide trend was apparent last week when South Korea, which has been heavily dependent on fossil-fuel imports, reversed plans to phase out nuclear plants. In the U.S., a sign of changing attitudes was the White House’s commitment to spend $6 billion for nuclear power plants in danger of closing, in hopes that nuclear might help cut back on carbon emissions. Another signal: uranium stocks have been surging.
“There’s no perfect energy or electricity source, but the risks associated with nuclear power pale in comparison to the impacts of climate change, such as stronger storms, heavy rainfall events, crop failure, heat exhaustion,” said Doug Vine, director of energy analysis at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a non-partisan, nonprofit environmental organization.
Over the years, as the dangers associated with climate change have become clearer, Vine has seen anti-nuclear activists switch sides. He points to Carol Browner, an environmentalist and former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator who now sees nuclear power as a better choice for the environment than fossil fuels.
One early to switch was Stewart Brand, creator of the counterculture classic Whole Earth Catalog. “I’m so pro-nuclear now that I would be in favor of it even if climate change and greenhouse gasses were not an issue,” he said on NPR in 2010.
It’s not just activists who have come to see nuclear power differently. A Pew Research Center survey in March found that 35 percent of Americans felt the government should encourage the production of nuclear power, 37 percent were neutral, and only 26 percent wanted the government to discourage nuclear energy. Just a year earlier, Pew found that 47 percent of Americans were opposed to expanding nuclear power.
The number of Americans who are pro-nuclear power may have even grown after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, given the impact that war has had on oil and gas prices both in the U.S. and Europe. “The war in Ukraine has brought into much sharper focus the need to get off of fossil fuels,” Vine said. That goes for both individuals and nations.
“Nuclear power has a very good safety record with the exception of a few highly publicized incidents, like Fukishima,” Vine said. “But it’s not unlike air disasters. We’ve learned from each of the disasters that happened in the past and today I think nuclear power is a lot safer than it was in 2011.”
Energy is life. Abundant and cheap energy means we can have abundant and cheap water. As governor I’m going to end the unnecessary war between city-dwellers, farmers, and environmentalists. With abundant energy we can create abundant fresh water through water storage, water recycling, and water desalination. We can have green lawns, water for farmers, and water for fish. I have the vision for how to do this.
I have pioneered and created a pro-human environmental movement. I am a Time Magazine “Hero of the Environment.” I won the Green Book Award. I wrote a bestselling book, translated into 17 languages, on how we can have economic growth and environmental protection. I was an advocate of renewables, and for strong action on climate change, for over 20 years. Ten years ago, I overcame my fear of nuclear power and came to see that we need nuclear energy, too, to end air pollution and carbon emissions. I spent the last six years building a global grassroots movement to keep nuclear plants around the world operating and fighting against anti-human environmentalists trying to shut them down, including here in California.
People are rapidly coming around to our vision. Europe became dependent on Russia for its energy, which allowed Putin to invade Ukraine. I warned policymakers in Europe, New York, and California that they must keep nuclear plants operating. Now, people can see that I was right. Elon Musk recently joined our movement, calling on the European governments to keep operating and even restart their nuclear plants.
As governor I’m going to keep California’s nuclear reactors operating. Governor Gavin Newsom, who owes his career to the Getty Oil fortune, is trying to replace our last nuclear plants with fossil fuels. Already Newsom and his colleagues made California’s electricity prices rise 7 times more than they did in the rest of the United States. Newsom has been causing blackouts ever since he took power in 2019. He cut in half the budget for fighting forest fires.
Why? Because he is in the pocket of Pacific Gas and Electric, and always has been. When PG&E went bankrupt due to its greed and mismanagement, Newsom used taxpayer money to bail them out.
Not me. When PG&E announced in 2016 that it would shut down California’s largest source of zero-pollution energy, Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, I stood up to them. I went into PG&E’s headquarters to protest. I would not be silenced. I fought back. And I’ve been fighting back ever since.
As governor, I’m going to reverse Newsom’s dangerous and deadly policies. I’m going to demand PG&E serve the interests of the people, not Newsom’s buddies.
As governor, I’m going to make sure California is on the cutting edge of energy, water, and the environment. I am going to build consensus through a citizens’ jury on energy and the environment, just like I will do on education. Housing also deeply divides our state and we need the thoughtful deliberation citizens’ juries provide on this key issue. We need more housing, but we also need to protect the character of our neighborhoods. All cities around the world grow the same way. All cities add taller buildings near mass transit like subway systems and buses. But they also add more housing in the suburbs. We are blessed to live in the greatest state in the greatest nation in America. We can protect the natural beauty of our state and our communities, and add more housing so young families can afford to live here and stay here.
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