The St. Petersburg (Florida) Times published a column on October 10, 2005 by Robert Trigaux titled “Drilling and nukes stir narry a worry”. The column starts with the intriguing question of “Where’s all the outrage?”
The premise of the article is that people in Florida, at least, have realized that high energy prices provide grounds for reconsidering previously held positions.
The author seems to be genuinely surprised by the reactions that he found during his research, even when he tried to find an opposing view from the Audubon Society of Florida. Here is an interesting excerpt:
Unexpectedly, Lee said nuclear power plants offer some environmental benefits to a state on the verge of being overrun by development.Nuclear power plants on Florida’s coastline operate with a 12-mile safety boundary around them where development is banned. That means some of the greatest stretches of natural Florida left along the coasts are adjacent to nuke plants.
“If those nukes were not here with their safety zones, the reality is, those places would now be wall-to-wall condos,” Lee said. “A new nuclear plant might exclude thousands of acres from future development.”
