As if the cost of a new reactor in a downturning economy and Warren Buffet's speculation are not enough, now the Southern Maryland Citizens Alliance for Renewable Energy Solutions, Public Citizen and others are stepping up their attacks on plans for another nuclear plant. Calvert Cliff's nuclear power plant, sitting beautifully and powerfully along the shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay, has never been a lightning rod for antinulear activity. It sailed right through relicensing several years ago without any trouble. Now this coalition of antinuclear environmental groups is filing legal challenges to stop the construction of a third reactor.
The Center is pronuclear and has supported Calvert Cliff's at Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) hearings. This does not endear us to the environmental movement in Maryland. However, we do not care because we are right and they are wrong, particularly if they believe global warming is the most serious environmental threat facing the world today. If traditional environmentalist are successful in shutting down all coal and nuclear plants (and maybe natural gas plants too), then America will face blackouts and will become a third world country. If the public and policymakers are bamboozled into believing that wind, solar and conservation can replace 90 percent of the current methods for producing electricity in America, then we pity them at election time when ratepayers have experienced blackouts and super high priced electricity. We love and promote wind, solar and efficiency, but they simply cannot carry the entire American electrical load.
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