“Nuclear fission is the most complicated, fraught, expensive way to boil water to produce steam to drive electrical turbines.”
What U.S. industry is at once the most subsidized and regulated by the federal government? The answer is commercial nuclear power. As a result, the 73-year-old “Atoms for Peace” program represents the most expensive failure (malinvestment) in US business. potholed with uncompleted projects and massive cost overruns with completed projects. Future decommissioning costs will add to this liability.
But hyperbole rules with this technology, and there is always tomorrow. Forget that competitive viability did not emerge in the 1950s or 1960s, and George W. Bush and Joe Biden both failed at their attempted “nuclear renaissance.” Expect the same to result from today’s interventionist energy policy.
A future post will outline the crash attempt by President Trump and DOE secretary Chris Wright to get new nuclear capacity on track.…
Continue ReadingThis post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. Droz is also the author of the popular Substack Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues.
Unreliables (General):
*** Solar and wind aren’t real power sources, they’re intermittent fuel-savers
Wind Energy — Offshore:
New York Ends Fifth Offshore Wind Solicitation Process ‘Due to Federal Actions Disrupting Market’
Trump Administration Files Appeal Against Court Ruling in Multi-State Offshore Wind Lawsuit
Fossil Fuel Energy:
*** Short video: Fossil Fuels — The Big Picture
Miscellaneous Energy News:
*** Heat Pumps: Efficient on paper, complicated in reality
Electricity Productivity Data Shows we are Falling Down the Energy Cliff
Electricity Rates & Fuel Cost
Alex Epstein’s Talking Points Roundup
The Endangerment Finding:
*** At last, with CO2 no longer a pollutant, we can all exhale
*** EPA’s elegant arguments for endangerment repeal
*** Goodbye and Good Riddance to the Endangerment Finding
The Water Vapor Problem
Congress, States Probe Attempts to Mislead Judges on Climate Change
Manmade Global Warming — Some Deceptions:
*** The Cult | A Net Zero Watch Short Film
*** Clearing up some misconceptions about the DoE climate report
*** $16 Trillion and Counting
*** 7 Lies We’re Told About Climate Change | Michael Shellenberger
Cuba Becomes the First Country to Reach Net Zero.…
“And you wonder why people are skeptical. [Bradley] made a comment. You disputed it. He provided support. You deflected and avoided the issue with a completely illogical statement. Oh, that’s right, you are a ‘journalist’.” ( – Mike Robinson to Elisa Wood, below)
Elisa Wood, writer and editor at Energy Changemakers, [1] posted:
A 75-year-old science group offers a new direction following the Trump administration’s climate rollback. Here’s why the plan features rooftop solar, batteries, microgrids and other forms of distributed energy.
I commented:
Rooftop solar? Those big companies (like Sunnova) have gone bankrupt and left customers with long-term contracts they do not like. It is a litigation paradise.
Wood: “Logical fallacy here. One company’s bankruptcy doesn’t damn a whole technology.”
Bradley: “Sunnova was the biggest.…
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