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New York Times Green, Inc. Blog

Advisers Spar

Kate Galbraith's post about the two campaigns sparring over nuclear energy at the CDP Global Forum in New York, promted a response from Nancy about fine tuning the nuclear questions.

Excerpt from Kate Galbraith's post
The two campaigns also sparred over nuclear energy, a form of power generation that releases no carbon-dioxide emissions, though waste disposal and storage issues — as well as a generalized image problem — have plagued its expanded deployment in the United States.

"Senator McCain thinks we should take advantage of it in an aggressive way," said Mr. Holtz-Eakin, adding "He believes Yucca Mountain storage facility is one that will be safe," referring to a controversial proposed nuclear-waste storage site in Nevada.

Mr. Obama has said that he wants to address issues such as security and waste storage before embracing nuclear power.

Nancy's Comment
A much sharper light would have been shed on the issue of nuclear power if questions had been posed about (1) the cost of building new nuclear plants (which has been estimated at $5-12 billion a pop) in comparison to other energy sources and (2) the kinds and levels of federal support available to the nuclear industry. After all, Congress is currently debating whether to expand its already generous nuclear power plant loan guarantee program.

Let's remember, the audience at this Carbon Disclosure Project-sponsored event was full of financial experts; surely, they could have handled the data.