Monday, March 09, 2009

We Spent $13 Billion

And all we have to show for it is a hole in the side of a mountain.

That's the decision from our new Energy Secretary, Steven Chu. For years work has been ongoing in the Yucca Mountains to build a repository for spent nuclear fuel, coincenditally just north of Las Vegas, and Mr Chu has said no thanks. He is not going to allow any further work, even though it is almost complete. As for what nuclear power plants are supposed to do with the left over spent nuclear fuel his response is, "I'll get back to you."

The Obama administration and Energy Secretary Steven Chu have scrapped almost total funding for Yucca Mountain — the massive nuclear storage facility 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas that has been under construction for years. While almost all the funding was slashed for the facility, no definite plan was put into place, just the announcement that a permanent plan is in the works.

All of this is simply in keeping with the Obama administration's policy of riding America of any existing forms of power while they go tilting at windmills secure in the knowledge that the next big energy breakthrough is just around the corner. They are working on shutting down coal plants through the banning of CO2 emissions, they have imposed new restrictions on offshore drilling of oil and natural gas, and of course have leveled new emission standards on autos further hampering any attempts the auto industry has of digging out a hole they have dug.

While everybody in his administration is a global warming believer from HHS Kathleen Sebelius, to Treasury Sec'y Timothy Geithner and for sure all of his energy and environmental team, it had better become a reality real soon or I know a lot folks up north that are really going to be hating winter.

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