Rocky Mountain Institute publishes periodic emails on energy topics (subscribe for free) and contains an abundance of impartial, non-partisan information about energy topics. It's about time we had an honest dialogue, absent Big Oil, Dirty Coal and Moribund Nuclear.
.In the article Nuclear Power is not the solution the point is made that:
.
Long term, nuclear offers the most expensive way to generate power. When you factor in all of the costs associated with electricity generating options (construction, maintenance, transmission, etc.), even industry-sponsored research suggests that nuclear power is likely to be the most expensive source of electricity we have over the long run. It is 50% more expensive than large coal or natural gas plants and twice as costly as large wind farms or energy efficiency projects. If you don’t see that extra cost in your electricity bill, it’s only because it’s hidden away in your tax bill via government subsidies.
.
Drilling in All the Wrong Places offers an impartial assessment of the flawed belief in oil drilling as a solution:
.
DRILLING FOR OIL IN THE ARCTIC National Wildlife Refuge should offend conservatives because it’s insecure, unimportant, unprofitable, and uncompetitive.
.
Oklahoman ex-CIA Director R. James Woolsey testified against drilling because its “real show-stopper is national security. Delivering that oil by its only route, the 800-mile- long Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), would make TAPS the fattest energy-terrorist target in the country— Uncle Sam’s ‘Kick Me’ sign.…Doubling and prolonging dependence on TAPS…imperils [national] security.”
Oklahoman ex-CIA Director R. James Woolsey testified against drilling because its “real show-stopper is national security. Delivering that oil by its only route, the 800-mile- long Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), would make TAPS the fattest energy-terrorist target in the country— Uncle Sam’s ‘Kick Me’ sign.…Doubling and prolonging dependence on TAPS…imperils [national] security.”
.
“TAPS,” he wrote, “is frighteningly insecure. It’s largely accessible to attackers, but often unrepairable in winter. If key pumping stations or facilities at either end were disabled, at least the above-ground half of 9 million barrels of hot oil could congeal in one winter week into the world’s biggest ChapStick®. The Army has found TAPS indefensible. It has already been sabotaged, incompetently bombed twice, and shot at more than 50 times[;]a drunk shut it down with one rifle shot. In 1999, a disgruntled engineer’s sophisticated plot to blow up three critical points with 14 bombs, then profit from oil futures trading, was thwarted by luck. He was an amiable bungler compared with the [9/11]attackers.”
“TAPS,” he wrote, “is frighteningly insecure. It’s largely accessible to attackers, but often unrepairable in winter. If key pumping stations or facilities at either end were disabled, at least the above-ground half of 9 million barrels of hot oil could congeal in one winter week into the world’s biggest ChapStick®. The Army has found TAPS indefensible. It has already been sabotaged, incompetently bombed twice, and shot at more than 50 times[;]a drunk shut it down with one rifle shot. In 1999, a disgruntled engineer’s sophisticated plot to blow up three critical points with 14 bombs, then profit from oil futures trading, was thwarted by luck. He was an amiable bungler compared with the [9/11]attackers.”
No comments:
Post a Comment