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Yes, nothing is certain but I do think it wasn’t preordained – a White House which took climate change seriously, which wasn’t so invested in fossil fuel produc
by acdha 2y ago
Yes, nothing is certain but I do think it wasn’t preordained – a White House which took climate change seriously, which wasn’t so invested in fossil fuel production, might have shifted the conversation to making nuclear safer because it would also reduce the even larger ecological footprint of coal and oil production. Reagan famously appointed a self-described “anti-environmentalist” and counted the dubious accomplishments of increasing strip-mining and opening up land for oil drilling so pretty much anyone would have been an improvement.
- yyyk 2y agoCarter created the Synthetic Fuels Corporation, whose main remit was various coal-to-oil schemes. Add in 1980s tech and you end up with such incredible pollution* that even strip mining everything is more environmentally friendly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_Fuels_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_Fuels_Corporation * You start from coal which has more carbon than oil in any grade you choose, and then add the extra inefficiency of the process so you need more coal than had you burnt it directly. It's like burning coal in a super inefficient manner.