Christie Todd Whitman, left, seems to be missing in action on the front lines of the fight to renew construction of nuclear power plants. She is the former administrator of the EPA and former governor of New Jersey. She is cochair of a nuclear industry coalition created to promote nuclear power, but we have observed that she is MIA on numerous battle fronts. Maybe the industry is assuming the nuclear renaissance many are 'talking about' will be a walk-over. We think with a very shaky economy and a possible shift in national political leadership combined with increasing plant costs and the monolithic opposition of the entire environmental movement, that an extremely small bench of active individual environmentalist supporters cannot afford to have any players on the backbench. Let's see:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearings and meetings: No
Network Television News Programs: No
Major newspaper articles: No
Oyster Creek (New Jersey) License Renewal campaign: No
NEI Nuclear Notes Blog: Rarely
These are just a few of more examples we could cite. Considering the nonexistent environmental activist support for nuclear power, one would think that all troops would be completely engaged in outreach. Only two American environmentalists are actively supporting nuclear power: 1) Whitman and 2) Center President Norris McDonald. Again, Whitman's role seems to be quite limited, particularly compared to her Canadian co-chair. It is probably none of our business but since our outreach arm is fighting hard on the front lines to the extent we can, it is curious to us that Whitman is not utilized more in the numerous activities related to relicensing and pending proposals for new plant licenses. Just wondering.
(More)
No comments:
Post a Comment