Smoking Gun 6 – Chesapeake Energy Strategy
I love honest people. Engaging in straightforward discussions and even arguments is one of my favorite pastimes. This morning, I opened up my copy of Chesapeake Energy’s annual report and…
In the midst of the debate about whether or not the UK should include new nuclear power as one of its major options in a new energy strategy designed to lessen the island nation’s dependence on imported coal, oil and gas and to meet its obligations as a signatory of the Kyoto accord, the Scottish government has made a number of statements indicating that there was “no chance” that there would be any new nuclear power stations welcomed in their corner of the “slightly” United Kingdom. (See, for example, Our leaders blow hot and cold on energy published on January 12, 2007 on the Telegraph.co.uk web site.)
The headline reasons for this stance is that Scotland is a land with lots of wind, tidal and wave energy that is sufficient to meet its own needs without the “risk” associated with using atomic fission and storing the left overs.
Here is a story that provides a different motivation – apparently the government has been providing positive signals that it supports large subsidies aimed at reopening a flooded coal mine called Longannet in Fife. The story, titled Campaigners claim government positive over Longannet reopening qualifies as a smoking gun where active campaigners against nuclear power indicate that part of the reason for their opposition is that the have financial or political reasons for supporting fossil power instead.
The written text of the story might not include as direct a comment as I normally like, but the timing of the discussion and the contrast between “no chance” for nuclear and support for outmoded coal is hard to ignore.
Rod Adams is Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital, a venture fund that invests in advanced nuclear, which provides affordable access to this clean energy sector to pronuclear and impact investors. Rod, a former submarine Engineer Officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., which was one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures, is an atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. He has engaged in technical, strategic, political, historic and financial analysis of the nuclear industry, its technology, regulation, and policies for several decades through Atomic Insights, both as its primary blogger and as host of The Atomic Show Podcast. Please click here to subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed. To join Rod's pronuclear network and receive his occasional newsletter, click here.
Jim Conca has published a couple of recent posts on Forbes.com about the premature closure of nuclear power plants in the United States. One titled Are California’s Carbon Goals Kaput? focuses on some of the environmental aspects of the San Onofre debacle; the other, titled Closing Vermont Nuclear Bad Business for Everyone focuses on the…
I have always tried to be clear when I talk about how fossil fuel interests have been responsible for much of the success of the organized anti-nuclear movement. Many people in various discussion forums have misinterpreted my words “fossil fuel interests” as meaning just major oil companies, but I am trying to encompass a larger…
In 1972, an Exxon internal audit disclosed that Esso Italiana, Exxon’s Italian subsidiary, had been making payments to Italian political parties that were tied by amount to specific corporate objectives. One of the objectives that was listed on documents seized by Italian authorities was halting nuclear energy development in Italy in favor of burning more…
On July 8, 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a lunchtime speech at Energy Epicenter, the annual conference of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. That speech provides a number of insights that are useful to those who are concerned about energy issues, concerned about the environment, and interested in the activities of power brokers…
Watch the latest business video at video.foxbusiness.com Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute, a self proclaimed libertarian think tank, recently visited Fox Business to explain his opposition to nuclear energy. The episode was on the Stossel Show and is called Nuclear Power: Republican Junk Economics?. If you listen really closely, you will hear him using…
I am in a snarky mood this morning. Please forgive me while I try to explain the sources of my wry amusement – and my continuing worries that keep me from getting a good night’s sleep. Yesterday, I was in a conversation with a man who was explaining the recent changes in Nuclear Regulatory Commission…