Climate Bill Killing Jobs
August 13, 2009
The climate bill is really just a big tax bill for business and according to studies it will cost us two million jobs and reduce our potential for economic growth. If it ever actually reduces CO2 emissions, it does so after 2030 (my reading of the bill suggests it reduces the growth after that date). There is a better solution. Why not focus on a solution that would: a) create millions of new jobs, b) reduce CO2 emissions by orders of magnitude and c) all but eliminate our need to import energy (oil)?
Our leaders need to quit listening to the coal lobby and instead embark on a New Deal-style building program to build a hundred or more nuclear power plants over the next five years. What about all of that coal? Why not ship it to China? They can’t get enough oil and natural gas to power their growing economy – lets ship it to them until they can completely convert to zero emissions energy.
Electric cars will finally make more sense. In a coal powered country (i.e. like America is today), electric cars actually generate more CO2 than traditional gasoline powered cars. Using electricity generated by nuclear power they will truly be zero emission.
Of course we are going to need a few new laws. First, the French figured a few things out that we can learn from. The first thing they figured out was to use the same design for all of 59 of their reactors. Why is that important? Lower cost of construction and operation. In the United States, federal law mandates that each reactor be of a different design. By law our reactors must be custom built, one off designs, that share NO parts with other reactors. The Chinese figured out who to build a reactor in two years, the average U.S. reactor takes twenty. Why? Lawyers. We need a moratorium on lawsuits related to reactors for the next decade – the climate and job crisis require we act fast – we don’t have time to lose.
Obama, Pelosi and Reid need to hear from you. Stop comprimising away our future. Build nuclear plants now!
UPDATE: Interesting article in the WSJ this morning explaining that the creators of Cap-and-Trade (the climate tax working its way through Congress) don’t support the program anymore. Why? They insist it won’t work.
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