Senators Inhofe and Sanders weigh in on nukes
More from the nuclear hearing.
Sen. Sanders (I): Public safety must be job #1. I must express serious concerns about aging fleet of 104 plants. Need more oversight of those first. Oversight is quite weak. I think many people don’t know what is going on. Nuclear plant in VT. “Failure of NRC oversight.” August 21, 2007 — a water tower collapsed. How much did Entergy pay for that mishap? None.
Then Aug. 30 emergency shutdown. Last week — leaking coolant pipe. End result. Confidence is not high. People have concerns. I share them. Inexplicable there were no fines. Confidence requires more oversight. We are grossly underestimating the role of energy efficiency and renewables. Within 15 years, 20% of power could be from solar thermal alone.
And then we have everybody’s favorite global warming denier.
Sen. Inhofe (R): Associate myself with Carper’s remarks. U.S. electricity demand projected to grow 30% by 2030. Critical of NRC permitting process as too slow. No schedule discipline. Streamlining necessary. T. Boone conference — [never mentions wind, Inhofe wants to use nukes to displace gas] — run our cars on natural gas.
Sen. Isalkson (R): I’ll be brief. The solution to America’s energy problem rest on a variety of sources, including nukes. Must have nukes to get where we need to go.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Just FYI, Sanders is an independent (socialist to be exact) who caucuses with the Democrats.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:28 am
You are very correct!
July 16th, 2008 at 11:38 am
It is sad to see the 30% increase line when efficiency could lead to a large decrease instead. They just don’t get it, do they? Negawatts are 1-2 cents per kWh: the cheapest electricity there is.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Do our Senators really not know how to speak in complete sentences or is this journalistic editing?
Personally, I find it much easier to derive meaning from sentences when they have the minimal constituent parts of subject and verb.
July 16th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I am doing live blogging from the Senate committee hearing room where I’m about to be a witness. I tend to do stream of consciousness, focusing on the key points.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Links to Real Player witness testimony and .pdf statements -
Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety hearing, Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Licensing and Relicensing Processes for Nuclear Plants.
July 16, 2008 EPW Hearing Room - 406 Dirksen