Mark Jacobson pushing his plans in appropriate location – late night comedy show

On October 9, 2013, David Letterman interviewed Mark Z. Jacobson, a leading proponent of a 100% renewable energy future. He described Jacobson as a man with a plan that should make us all more optimistic; that plan describes a world that has a completely changed energy supply system that does not threaten us with catastrophic…

Oil Road and Carbon Democracy – Actinides could disrupt corrupt establishment

The October 8, 2013 episode of Democracy Now! featured a fascinating conversation with James Marriott, Anna Galkina, and Timothy Mitchell. The three guests shared a passion of mine; they have obviously invested a great deal of time investigating the way that oil and gas dependence influence power politics, economics and the condition of our environment….

McMurdo Station – the New York of the Deep Freeze South

(Note: If you are impatient and do not want to watch cute photos of penguins, skip to 19:06 to learn more about the reasons why the PM-3A, a 1,500 kilowatt nuclear electricity generator and process heat supply system, was such a valuable contributor to sustained Antarctic research.) Nearly all of the images that are used…

Memorable smokestacks knocked down – Cutler plant demolition

While preparing a presentation for delivery at a local college, I ran across a video of Florida Power & Light’s August 10, 2013 demolition of the historic Cutler power plant in Palmetto Bay, Florida. Cutler Plant’s tall smokestacks played a role in my early interest in nuclear energy. My father worked for FP&L as the…

Truth about shale gas is out there for critical thinkers

I’ve just read a fascinating series of posts about shale gas extraction published on rbnenergy.com. Planned as a five part series, parts 1-4 have been published so far. The titles of each post start with the phrase “The Truth is Out There”. Here is the list of posts published so far: The Truth is Out…

PBS Need to Know – The Nuclear Option. Damning with faint praise

As a pronuclear advocate who majored in English as an undergraduate, I could not help but notice the frustratingly effective use of slanted language in the above video segment to damn nuclear energy with faint praise. From the very pregnant pause after President Obama says “if it’s safe…..”, to Dr. Lester’s multiply negative statement saying…

Natural gas suppliers have no doubts about climate change

After receiving an email asking me to participate in a poll for the American Nuclear Society, I asked the following question of my Twitter followers. Would the American Natural Gas Society poll its members to find out if they should stop marketing the “low-carbon” aspect of their product? — Rod Adams (@Atomicrod) August 8, 2013…

How important has oil money been to antinuclear movement?

A couple of days ago, I wrote about my discovery that Robert O. Anderson, a long time leader in the global petroleum business, had provided the seed money that David Brower used to fund Friends of the Earth, an organization that has been fighting against nuclear energy for more than 40 years. I pointed out…