Feb 1, 2010

Energy Fascists

The below provides the back ground to the Yuka Mountain Facility and I originally published this several months ago.

Fascism... the phrase is thrown around so lightly these days that I believe in order to support the title, I must define the word.  Abigail and Dolley readers know that while some posts may be tongue in cheek, most are well reasoned works by thoughtful individuals, the rest are written by me.  (There's that tongue in cheek thing again...)

Merriman's Online Dictionary defines fascist as: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

According to your worldview or political philosophy you will infer what you wish to our present leadership and circumstances.  I submit to you an example of such fascism as displayed this week by the closing of the Yuka Mountain Nuclear Waste storage facility.  William La Jeunesse wrote a great piece on this and I encourage you to read the article.

Basically, it boils down to this:  Nuclear energy is the cleanest, safest, greenest, abundant, renewable energy source in the world.  It is just not politically popular.  This bad rap is not based on facts, but irrational fear and Hollywood hype.  It is the ultimate in green energy, yet it is shunned in favor of expensive windmills that kill tens of thousands of birds a year, solar farms that are an eyesore, and other "green" solutions that costs 10, 20, 50, 200% more per power unit than nuclear power.

For decades, the Federal Government has been charging every household in America an excise tax on your power bill to pay for a nuclear waste disposal facility in the middle of no where.  The Obama Administration has decided to close the Yuka Mountain facility leaving the nation without a place to store it's nuclear waste.

Do I sense a little "nudge" from the Obama crowd?  What happens to all the waste currently being produced?  Doesn't that sound unreasonable to you, to close a billion dollar facility with no alternative?  Could their motive be to shut down nuclear power in the USA?  Could their motive be a way to force power companies to raise rates and thus open the way for government to intervene against the evil power companies?  Could their motive be to force the cap and trade bill though the Congress by demonizing electric companies who endanger the public with their dangerous nuclear waste?  Could they intervene through the take over of health care and declare nuclear power a danger to our health?  What about intervening from a National Security perspective since the power companies must now protect nuclear material?

Let's review:  

fascist as: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.