05/17/05

Nuclear Power in the Media

The New York Times has now published two articles in the span of two days that seem to suggest that "environmentalists" have embraced nuclear power, when in reality only a hand-picked few have begun to feel it is inevitable.

More should be said about the lack of initiatives to produce power in the U.S. with truly environmentally rational technologies like wind power. For example, residents of lower New York state in 2005 -- 13 years after Gore's celebrated "Earth in the Balance" -- still have no option to buy electricity from clean sources. There may be some hydro-electric power up-state, but down-state (New York City) all the juice comes from coal, gas, and nuclear power.

So when people like Joe Lieberman become the mouthpiece of environmentalism and say that we have to rethink nuclear options, I say let's put everything on the table and figure out why so damned little has been done with other technologies. I feel that at some level the reason this nuclear story has such currency in the mass media is because there are a lot of wealthy people who are deeply invested in the business of nuclear power. The pattern of nuclear friendly reporting at the Times has been documented (see for example Lies of Our Times).

There are plenty of environmentalists who do not believe nuclear is the answer, and who do not believe that environmentalism is dead. They may not be getting the headlines, but that is a problem of the media not evidence that nuclear power should be recuperated.

Reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/17/opinion/17tierny.html