The Obama administration claims to support nuclear energy as part of the growing national infrastructure. However, political convenience has left that support on the chopping block every time it has been in play. The stimulus bill included funding for nuclear plant accident insurance to targeted communities, but it was one of the first programs cut when a smaller, compromise bill was needed. Of course, I’m not for an expansion of the stimulus package, but it belies the administration’s priorities that of all of the extraneous spending in the bill, incentivizing plant approval and development was one of the first things to go.

The President has also dealt a death blow to the Yucca Mountain storage facility in the recent budget, acquiescing to Harry Reid’s adamant ‘not in my state’ stance. The problem is that such a repository must be in someone’s state for the country to cheaply and cleanly get the energy it needs, and Congress picked Yucca as the ideal location over twenty years ago – the future of the nuclear industry relies on not having to start over.

The President claimed the same sort of “support” for domestic drilling back when gas was at $4/gal, too, so this shouldn’t be surprising. Just like the debate then, Republicans have an opportunity now to own this issue. Americans tentatively support nuclear energy, but nothing is ever done to capitalize on it, just like domestic drilling before catching fire as a talking point.

Besides being politically savvy, the move to push harder for nuclear energy would be part of a lasting solution to rising energy costs. The Department of Energy estimates that we will need about 30% more electricity in the nationwide grid over the next two decades, which is about how long it will take all of the roughly 30 planned (and waiting) reactors to be financed, built and brought up to speed.

Domestic drilling is a great thing to get behind and bring to the table, but we need to be concerned with more than just gas prices. Nuclear energy will lower electric costs, keep them low over the long-term and have an effect on oil prices, by substituting for natural gas in heating costs. Also, if you are a member of the global warming panic crowd, nuclear energy currently accounts for 75% of the nation’s carbon-free energy production. You can put scrubbers in factories and lower the horsepower in cars all you want, but nuclear energy is the only proven viable solution that could eventually replace coal power plants.

The Senate Energy Committee is currently outlining a renewable energies bill that presents a great opportunity for nuclear energy to make inroads into crucial financing. The bill will define what does and does not count as renewable energy toward federal benchmarks being set for a certain percentage of the nation’s energy coming from renewable sources. Nuclear energy being included on that list would be a huge boon to the industry, as it is the only possibility that represents a net gain to communities financially, both in jobs and in energy prices. There is no reason nuclear energy should not be on that list, but political motivations might take precedence in the debate. Chairman of the Committee, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, is against the expansion of nuclear energy (preferring the much more costly solar option) but for increased funding of nuclear weapons research. On an unrelated note, New Mexico has a lot of sun and hosts both the nation’s foremost nuclear weapons research lab (Los Alamos) and a nuclear waste repository.

However, should Republicans get behind nuclear energy as they did with domestic drilling, the issue will be much less likely to be swept under the rug. Coming out of a winter full of high heating bills and heading into a summer full of high electric costs, the public needs to be made aware of the most cost-efficient solutions in these tough economic times. With Sen. Domenici retired, it seems that the only person who gets enough press to preach this issue is Sen. McCain. If everyone on our side of the aisle picked it up as their own, though, the voices would be too much to ignore, for both Congressional Democrats and the public.

Last 5 posts by Gideon D'Assandro

• The Reality of Racial Politics - August 17th, 2009
• Thank God Obama's President - August 3rd, 2009
• Health Care Coverup - July 23rd, 2009
• The Suppressed EPA Report’s Effect on Healthcare - July 12th, 2009
• Social Conservatism Going Forward - July 5th, 2009