The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 5 of 12)

Mr. Tucker's report harkens me back to my early days in the energy business. Way back in the 1970s, when we were waiting in long gasoline lines, President Nixon established the Department of Energy (DOE). DOE was consolidation of a myriad of energy related agencies including the Energy Research and Development Agency (ERDA), which in turn had inherited the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

DOE's new mission, in addition to overseeing the nuclear weapons complex and the development of commercial atomic energy, was to lead the charge for finding new energy sources.

Oil shale in western Colorado and eastern Utah were prime targets for exploration and development. Sadly, after huge investments by the government and several energy companies, it was discovered that it was heck of a lot harder to squeeze oil out of rocks than predicted by the so-called experts. The oil shale projects were eventually canceled.

As mentioned in Mr. Tucker report, DOE subsidized several solar plants here in California that have been proved to be inefficient when compared to more traditional energy sources. DOE also pushed for the expansion of thermal energy and subsidized a new plant near the Salton Sea, which was also failed to meet the experts' production predictions, and was fraught with technical problems.

The only "new" energy source with the potential to provide cheap, efficient, and clean energy was nuclear. However, due to a number of problems including hysterical reporting following the accident at Three Mile Island, the nuclear energy promise was essentially reduced to a whimper.

p>It is ironic now that many are touting the renaissance of nuclear energy we are now reliant on foreign expertise to revive the promise when over sixty years ago the United States was leader in nuclear technology. br> -- Thomas Bullock br> West Covina, California /p> p> William Tucker is right to point out that the left opposes the development of nuclear power for electricity generation, but he misses one exception which proves the rule, namely Iran's nuclear program, which has yet to engender the opposition that ours does in Greens and Democrats. Perhaps if we offered to buy Iran's surplus output, the left would consent to our use of nuclear power? br> -- Mike Harris /p>

"[This] vanguard of entrepreneurs [Vinod Koshla, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems] and financiers...believe their Silicon Valley success stories can be repeated in green energy...."

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