Obama Deserves an F on Energy Policy

The Obama administration is off to a truly disastrous start on its energy policy. It has accepted the delusion notion that supporting nuclear energy is somehow anti-progressive while giving preference to so called renewable energy sources is good policy.

Here are Obama's energy delusions. Mr. Obama appears to believe that the problems of conventional nuclear power are crippling compared to renewables. That is not the case. In facts renewables are crippled by their intermittency, while nuclear power is reliable.

The Obama administration is concerned about the problem of nuclear waste management. But under the current system nuclear waste is stored safely, and poses far less of a danger to human health and safety and to the environment than waste from coal fired steam plants.

The Obama administration is overly concerned by nuclear safety, but by any objective standard America's 104 power reactors have proven to be extremely safe.

The Obama administration is concerned about nuclear costs, but the cost of making renewables reliable enough to assure America 24 hour a day power will make renewables more expensive than conventional nuclear power.

The Obama administration believes itself to be well informed about energy issues. In fact it is basing policy on half-baked energy approaches. The flaws in the renewable approaches now in favor should be clear to anyone who begins by asking obvious questions like where is the power going to come from when the wind does not blow, or when the sun goes down at night. And of course the Obama staff has not yet asked how much this is going to cost.

Barack Obama was elected to put an end to the non-deliberative policy approach of the Bush administration. So far, however, the Obama administration's attitude toward energy has been anything but fact based. Let us recall Ron Suskind's account of the Bush staffer:

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

The Obama administration has not yet engaged in a judicious determination of the facts about energy. Confident in their own power and in their ability to set policy on whim, they have decided to follow what will surely be a disastrous policy if followed long term. We can only hope that during the next few years, as America's war to assure itself an energy future becomes obviously more difficult, and Mr. Obama's ability to see his own mistakes, admit them and correct them will come and prevent a disaster. If not we are headed out into the wilderness without food or water. Leading people toward disaster surely is not progressive.