tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597656451205429515.post4042738228068077764..comments2024-02-16T17:52:44.944-06:00Comments on The Nuclear Green Revolution: Energy and a Broke CountryCharles Bartonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01125297013064527425noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597656451205429515.post-4241207338080885072008-12-14T17:45:00.000-06:002008-12-14T17:45:00.000-06:00The cost of energy is a decisive factor in the wea...The cost of energy is a decisive factor in the wealth of nations. In this epoch of globalization, the means of production will naturally flow to the country with the lowest cost of industry. This cost involves only a few critical variables. Currently, the cost of labor has been a dominant factor in the industrial disbursement equation. This labor cost imbalance has lead to a mass migration of labor intensive production to labor rich nations. <BR/><BR/>But now the industrial calculus is on the cusp of a kairotic moment. The cost slope of energy is deepening. Soon it will dominate the cost structure of most items. The country that can dominate in the efficient and abundant generation of energy will also dominate in national artisanship. Those losses in labor experienced in our country will gradually slow, stop, and then reverse. The industrial base will revive and flourish. Innovation and productivity will once more rise as the heart of a revitalized nation. <BR/><BR/><BR/>All this is now possible in this time of change if there is the vision to make good choices; to reject the politically expedient, to plot a course that is wise, fearless, and far sighted. <BR/><BR/>This is a moment when our country is facing a set of challenges greater than any we've seen in generations. Our changing climate is placing our planet in peril. Our economy is in turmoil and our families are struggling with rising costs and falling incomes; with lost jobs and lost homes and lost faith in the American Dream. And for too long, our leaders at all levels have been unwilling or unable to do anything about it. We can no longer tolerate or even survive misinformed energy policy.<BR/><BR/>Today, the energy threat goes to the very heart of who we are as a nation, and who we will be. Will we be the generation that leaves our children a planet in decline, or a world that is clean, and safe, and thriving? Will we allow ourselves to be held hostage to the whims of tyrants and dictators who control the world's energy? Or will we control our own energy and our own destiny? Will America watch as the clean energy jobs and industries of the future flourish in countries like China, Japan, or Germany? Or will we create them here, in the greatest country on Earth, with the most talented, productive workers in the world?<BR/><BR/><BR/>As Americans, we know the answers to these questions. We know that we cannot sustain a future powered by intermittent and unreliable energy. Not when the rapid growth of countries like China and India mean that we're consuming more of earth’s dwindling resources faster than we ever imagined. We know that we can't sustain this kind of future.<BR/>But the truth is, none of these steps will come close to seriously reducing our energy dependence in the long-term. We simply cannot pretend that we can build our way out of this problem based on unreliable wind and solar. We need a much bolder and much bigger set of solutions. We have to make a serious, nationwide commitment to developing new sources of energy and we have to do it right away.<BR/><BR/><BR/>But I know we can do this. We can do this because we are Americans. We do the improbable. We beat great odds. We rally together to meet whatever challenge stands in our way. In the end, we have always picked the right course. That's what we've always done - and it's what we must do now. <BR/><BR/><BR/>Creating a new energy economy isn't just a challenge to meet; it's an opportunity to seize - an opportunity that will create new businesses, new industries, and millions of new jobs; jobs that pay well; jobs that can't be outsourced; good union jobs. For a country that has lost so many and struggled so much in recent years, this is an opportunity to rebuild and revive our economy; to clime back on top, to win again, and to dominate.<BR/>We'll find the right ways to use nuclear power and eliminate nuclear waste by using it. And we'll invest in this breakthrough technology that will allow us to move off coal. <BR/><BR/> This new energy technology has been know for years but never made it out of the lab and onto the market because our priorities were distorted in a dysfunctional nuclear energy business. So we must remove some of this perverted thinking by directing billions in loans and capital to entrepreneurs who are willing to create a new factory centered nuclear energy business and clean energy jobs right here in America.<BR/><BR/><BR/>As we develop these new sources of energy and electricity, we will also need to revolutionize our energy infrastructure so that it can accommodate this new and unlimited source of power, more efficient, and more reliably. That's an investment that will also create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and one that we must and shall make as a nation.<BR/><BR/><BR/>I ask you to draw hope from the improbable progress this nation has made from its very beginning, and look to the future with confidence that we too can meet the great test of our time. I ask you to join a new nuclear generation, a new and vital nuclear dream and in the years to come, to ensure that we will not only control our own energy, but once again control our own destiny, and forge a new and better future for the country that we love.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com