President Obama has just announced 8 billion dollars in guaranteed loans to build two new nuclear power plants right here in America. On this matter, I disagree with Obama. I don’t quite understand nuclear energy. I’m not sure how much “cleaner” it is, when there is so much radioactive waste that has to be transported across states and stored in mountains. The government is still researching ways to make this process safer, but it’s not here yet.
But alas, the Right has come up with a sound argument and talking point to support the construction of nuclear power plants – “But France does it!”
Huh. Interesting. I know a lot of Republicans and I can’t ever recall a time when they supported what the French do. Hating all things French is a part of their gene makeup. We can’t do health care like France because they’re a bunch of socialists. We can’t eat like the French because we don’t want anyone telling us our portion sizes are too large. Hell, they even hated the French so much they wanted to rename french fries Freedom Fries (this way they could truly “taste freedom”). And by God, we hate their accents!
Yet, the French argument has been the talking point for years. Now, my thinking on the subject is this. France probably does have an impeccable record on nuclear energy because the government oversight of those plants is outta this world. We, however, have a nuclear power plant about 24 miles from NYC that is consistently ranked at the bottom for not meeting safety regulations and has had its share of accidents over the years. What we need is France to come over here and whip that place into shape.
If nuclear energy can also be safe energy, then I’m all for it. I understand investing in this type of alternative energy will create jobs, but at what cost? I don’t even like using a microwave so I sure don’t want to live anywhere near a nuclear power plant. Do you?
Now, supposedly this move was to appease both the Left and the Right since they can’t agree on their own about what steps should be taken towards fixing our energy crisis. Seems logical, but here’s the irony. They BOTH hate it. The Right doesn’t want the government handing out loans to invest in alternative energy that would create jobs (just hand out tax cuts!). And the Left doesn’t want to risk safety for job creation.
Obama tries to appease everyone and he ends up pleasing no one. Now that is something I understand.
