Jimmy Carter once again
Over the past few years, several bloggers have made the comparison between President Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, and every time Obama has lived up to our comparisons. Well, here we go again. In today’s Washington Times, Joseph Weber writes that Obama is backing the first nuclear power plant construction in decades.
President Obama on Tuesday announced roughly $8 billion in federal loan guarantees to build the first U.S. nuclear power plant in three decades.
The president said the initiative was part of his administration’s ongoing effort to develop “safe, clean” energy and reduce the country’s dependency on foreign oil.
However, he also used the announcement to issue stern warnings about the United States falling behind others countries and about how upgrading the domestic power grid and making high-tech batteries in U.S. factories through the American Recovery Act is not enough.
Ya know what else happened three decades ago besides the fact that we stopped building power plants? Jimmy Carter, in his “malaise speech”, sensing that he was in political trouble if he didn’t do something about the energy crunch, said this;
To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.
We will protect our environment. But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.
Yeah, not one more refinery has been built since the day Carter gave that speech. Our domestic resources remain unused and undeveloped.
I do not promise a quick way out of our nation’s problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort. What I do promise you is that I will lead our fight, and I will enforce fairness in our struggle, and I will ensure honesty. And above all, I will act.
Yeah, he acted by forming the Energy Department, and then nothing. Democrats have thwarted our energy independence ever since they promised to solve it. What makes this Democrat any different?
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Economy, Liberals suck
RE: Carter/Obama.
Think single term. A bright spot of comparison, at least.
Jimmah Cahtah’s DoE and the US DEA have much in common. Both were formed with noble causes mentioned, but developed into no more than a money pit. How much have either spent since their inception, and what results have they produced? I don’t know current figures on DoE, but DEA has spent a Trillion bucks with nothing to show but a rise in transportation costs, bringing the cartels into the mix, and causing more damned deaths than if we had just let the damned junkies dose themselves to death. The DoE hasn’t done one thing of value to the American citizen.
Just another attempt to throw money at a problem that only needed being left alone to survive. If the administration, any administration were truly concerned they would just cause the permitting to be more realistic, and let things move forward. As it is, we are using older refineries that are more polluting than any new facility would be.
“Never Forget Ft. Hood Texas 11/5/09!”
One thing that Obama didn’t say, and the lap dog media didn’t question was that saying you want to build 2 new nuke plants is one thing, but if you don’t loosen all the regulations on building it and maybe, say re-opening Yucca Mountain, then you won’t get anyone to build it, since it will be cost prohibitive and there will be no place to take the spent fuel rods.
He was pandering, nothing more, nothing less, since he didn’t announce that he was going to do anything to streamline the prcess for building the plants, or any plans for the spent rods.
It was said on Fox News last night that, even if everything went along the way things should work in this country, it would be 2012, at the earliest, before the first shovelful of dirt got turned over on this project. I’m sure anyone except our libs that show up here knows that the envirowackjobs will throw every roadblock in the known universe in front of this project. OT is right, this is just political pandering.
The answer to the final question posed?
NOTHING but the color.
Old Trooper hit the nail on the head. I work at one of the newer nuke plants, and had we not developed a dry fuel storage facility on-site, we wouldn’t have been able to operate past last year because we would have had no more storage in the spent fuel pool. The fact that he gutted funding for Yucca Mountain without an alternative being developed for potential long-term high-level waste disposal says a lot more than the platitudes of a couple of bucks thrown into a plant that will likely never be built under current conditions.
A nuclear power plant will never be built. Oh there will be a lot of money spent. The heavily Unionized construction cabal will get billions of dollars thrown their way. Maybe even a location will be picked out. There is will stop, held up by the NIMBY’s and the environmentalist who really don’t want us to have abundant energy of any kind. It’s the same reason that we are not exploring our national resources, drilling for oil and natural gas where we know it exist now. The environmentalists want us using only renewable resources, notwithstanding the fact that we could till every arable acre of land in the United States for biofuel crops and it still wouldn’t make up for our imported oil. The Enviros want to control the resource, and the consumption of energy resources in the entire United States (for a start). Hmmm, sounds like Cap and Tax.
The NIMBY’s just don’t anything build in their backyards. Wind farms off Nantucket? Nope, build it somewhere else. Nuclear fuel storage? Nope, build it somewhere else. Drill for natural gas? Nope. Coal? Nope. Oil, not a chance in hell.
Short story, money will be spent, nothing will happen. Private enterprise won’t touch it with a 12 foot pole. Why? No one wants a multi-billion dollar reactor project held up because the spotted-crested-three-toad-tiger-lilly-swamp-newt is an endangered species, there are only 12 of them left in existence and if they go extinct, well they are gone forever and that parcel of land is their native habitat.
UpNorth,
2012 for the first shovel?? That would be cutting through ALOT of red tape…. I work for a utility here in Michigan (I bet you can guess which one) We just got the permit for a coal plant and we’re optimistically looking at 2017 and that’s on an already existing site!
The DOE was created by Jimmy Carter on Aug. 4, 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. There are now over 16,000 gov’t employees, around 100,000 contract workers and its budget is over 24 billion a year. Oh, and we now import more oil than ever.
Anyone else notice how Obama uses the word “I” more and more?
It’s always about HIM, isn’t it?