Fossil fuels must provide much of our electricity for years to come, meaning that electric vehicles are burning fossil fuels. But let\u2019s look at where juice would come from, absent fossil fuels, to run American factories, plus home heat for 330 million people, plus their cooking and home entertainment, plus a fleet of 200 million electric vehicles. Multiplying our current solar energy by 10 (it\u2019s now about 1 percent of our energy mix) won\u2019t do.<\/p>\n
Nuclear. That\u2019s the real Green New Deal. As fossil fuels become more expensive and objectionable, \u201cclean, safe nuclear power\u201d is envisioned to carry the energy load. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are little nuke plants built like autos in a factory and delivered in shipping containers anywhere in the world: the Arctic, the Amazon, and small towns like Eugene. Bill Gates is testing one in Wyoming. Oregon\u2019s NuScale is testing in Idaho. A Chinese SMR will be produced in 2026. Britain in 2028. America, maybe 2030. They can be generating nuclear waste (I mean, energy) two years after the order is placed. Very convenient for mining, oil extraction and electric agribusiness. The industry optimistically projects thousands installed by 2050.<\/span><\/p>\n Today, there are more than 80,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste in America, and over a quarter of a million tons in over five hundred locations around the world. Most of it has not even been \u201cdry casked,\u201d and is sitting in pools. Dry casks are these cement and steel jobs rated for 100 years of storage. When the century is over, and the cans start leaking, who will pony up to re-cask them repeatedly for the next several hundred thousand years?<\/span><\/p>\n Electric means nuclear. If you don\u2019t like nuke waste, don\u2019t press for EVs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Christopher Logan<\/span><\/p>\n Eugene<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fossil fuels must provide much of our electricity for years to come, meaning that electric vehicles are burning fossil fuels. But let\u2019s look at where \u2026 Continue reading\u00a0