With President Obama in the White House and Democrats in control of Congress, we can look happily forward to a new drive toward development of alternative sources of energy. But, just as in every other area of public policy, there will be fights over what to develop, how much money to allocate, where to locate plants and transmission lines, and negative environmental consequences. I anticipate the biggest fight to occur over development and construction of new nuclear power plants. As I posted about last week, the government is experiencing a flurry of requests to construct new nuclear facilities. As the government determines what course to take, it will be interesting to see how the environmental community responds. Again, I predict a pretty big fight. And, according to a recent Gallup poll, it seems as though there will be a big fight among the general public, as well.
According to the Gallup poll, 59% of Americans somewhat or strongly favor nuclear power. This is apparently the highest level of good graces that nuclear power has attained in the United States. I imagine it has something to do with the fact that there has been no catastrophe for quite a long time. Yet, our memories remain strong. The Gallup poll also found that 42% of Americans are wary of the safety of nuclear plants. This is not a huge margin and I expect that there will be much more talk about both the benefits and disadvantages of nuclear power.
