Nuclear

Just days before French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged attendees at a Paris energy conference to buy more nuclear power plants, a very different nuclear power conference was held in Potsdam, Germany. The Brookings Institution and the Global Public Policy Institute convened 35 people from governments, academia, think tanks, and industry to consider nuclear power's future. Craig Severance offers his own insights, and his conference presentation on why new nuclear power should undergo a rigorous business oriented "Due Diligence" process.

-Detroit Wants To Save Itself - By Shrinking
-Orange officials sue couple who removed their lawn
-Obama’s Nuclear Blind Spot
-Tory budget ‘walks away' from renewable energy, environmentalist says

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-From the IEA
-China
-CERA week
-Quote of the week
-Briefs

The United States apparently has reached the point where it must either accept that Iran will develop nuclear weapons at some point if it wishes, or take military action to prevent this. There is a third strategy, however: Washington can seek to redefine the Iranian question. As we have no idea what leaders on either side are thinking, exploring this represents an exercise in geopolitical theory. Let’s begin with the two apparent stark choices.

Last week I had the honor of speaking with Kathleen Krevetski of Rutland, Vermont who has worked hard to publicize the adverse effects of radiation from nuclear power plants on people's health, especially on women and children who are the most vulnerable...Thanks to these dedicated activists, the Vermont Senate voted to close Yankee on February 24.

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Looming electricity shortages
-China's macro control
-Quote of the week
-Briefs

A midweekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Venezuela

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-The Iranian standoff
-Nuclear power for the U.S.
-Quote of the week
-Briefs

-In Bid to Revive Nuclear Power, U.S. Is Backing New Reactors
-The Nuclear Energy Debate
-Obama's Nuclear Giveaway

A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Iran

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-China's Growth
-India
-Quote of the Week
-Briefs

Millions of job losses are pushing the U.S. Senate to consider a Jobs and Energy bill, even though Cap and Trade appears to be on life support. What are Five Key Measures that must be in a new Bill to avoid being a "half-ass..d" effort? (term from Sen. Lindsey Graham descrbing limited climate bill)

-Sanctions Are the Talk of the Day
-U.S. Wants Iran Sanctions In Weeks; Embassies Attacked
-Iran begins enriching higher-grade uranium, says state TV

-What’s Missing from the New Clean Energy Agenda?
-Soaring cost of healthcare sets a record
-America Is Not Yet Lost
-Seven States of Energy Debt

One way of looking at our current set of predicaments is that we've been on a binge, consuming energy considerably faster than it can be captured and stored by Earth's ecosystems. While fossil fuels once appeared limitless (and still do to deniers of peak oil), and though we're literally bathed in energy (in the form of sunlight), the disappearance of the fossil-fuel storehouse accumulated over millions of years isn't something that can be replaced with anything nearly as convenient as fossil fuels.