Forbes on NRC, two podcasts, that’s not a Tufted Titmouse!
Forbes piece on the NRC, Stancil and Nelson on the podcast, that's not a Tufted Titmouse...
Last night, Lorin and I were eating dinner at El Meson, our favorite restaurant in Austin, when I got a text from my friend Tom Popik, saying that the Russians had attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine. The news made me queasy. The senseless destruction of the war and the loss of human life is hard to fathom. And then, on top of that, to learn that the Russians are purposely destroying critical infrastructure and risking a nuclear accident, I struggle to find the words to express my anger, frustration, and disappointment. In particular, to see nuclear plants, the facilities that Emmet Penney rightly called our “industrial cathedrals” attacked, left me deeply sad. I take no joy in pointing out that this war underscores the foolishness of Europe’s woke energy policies and how the politicians' feckless embrace of renewables at the expense of nuclear and hydrocarbons has driven the continent into the ditch. It also provides a stark warning to the U.S. about the dangers of following Europe’s energy suicide, a point I made last November when I testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
I’m doing my best to promote energy realism and energy humanism. On Monday, I was in Denver speaking to the International Electrical Testing Association. Next Monday, the 7th, I’ll be in Nashville speaking to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Later next week, I’ll be in Steamboat Springs, speaking at an all-star event sponsored by the Steamboat Institute along with Steve Koonin, Bjorn Lomborg, Patrick Moore, and Alex Epstein. The event is on March 11 & 12. You can find more info here. I’d ramble on, but my sister, Mary Fox, and her family, are in Austin this weekend, and Michael’s visiting from Denver. So I’m going to cut to the chase. Four items this week:
Forbes: NRC rescinds license extensions
Podcast: Heather Stancil on the fight against Big Wind in Madison County
Podcast: Mark Nelson on Russia, Ukraine, and soaring commodity prices
Black-crested Titmouse
The image of the Tufted Titmice above is from Birds of America by John James Audubon
On Monday, after my speech in Denver, I posted a piece on Forbes about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that appears to be doing its best to hamstring the growth of nuclear energy in this country. I began:
Last month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission rejected the application of Oklo Power LLC, a California-based startup that was seeking approval of its design for a 1.5-megawatt reactor it wants to build in Idaho.Last week, the NRC was at it again, with another decision that adds yet more friction to the domestic nuclear sector. On a 2-1 vote along party lines, the agency agreed with the arguments put forward by an anti-nuclear group and reversed a decision the agency made in 2019 to allow the Turkey Point nuclear plant in Florida to continue operating for another 20 years. The agency also rescinded its approval of a license extension for the Peach Bottom nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, an extension that was granted in 2020. The plants are owned by Florida Power & Light (a subsidiary of NextEra Energy NEE +1.1%) and Constellation Energy, respectively.
Put simply, this reversal is nuts. There is no way for the U.S. to achieve significant cuts in carbon dioxide emissions without nuclear energy and lots of it. But the NRC continues to act like it doesn’t want the nuclear sector to succeed. Yes, it is a regulator and it must assure the safety and regulatory compliance of the nuclear sector. But by rescinding the licenses, the agency showed, again, that it poses an uncontrollable risk for investors looking to put money into nuclear energy. Indeed, for the agency to change its rules – by giving a license extension and then a couple of years later snatching it back on what appears to be little more than a whim – adds yet more uncertainty to an industry that desperately needs stability and a clear regulatory framework. Furthermore, it adds uncertainty at the very time that numerous companies are trying to attract investment in next-generation nuclear reactors, including small modular reactors.
I concluded: "Unfortunately, the NRC’s latest move makes extending the life of existing reactors harder and more expensive. Even worse, it will also discourage investors who are looking to invest in the next generation of smaller, safer, nuclear reactors."
Again, here’s a link.
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Heather Stancil: "It's all about the money."
Last year, I had Diane Fitch, a county supervisor from Madison County, Iowa, on the podcast to talk about the county’s fight against a wind project that was being pushed by MidAmerican Energy, a subsidiary of the mega-conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway. You can see that podcast on YouTube. This week, my guest is another politician from Madison County, Heather Stancil. In 2020, Stancil was elected to the Madison County Board of Supervisors on an anti-wind-energy platform by a margin of 65 to 35%. In this episode, Stancil, who lives in Earlham, (population 1,400) talks about the county’s legal battle with MidAmerican Energy (which sued the county for banning wind projects), the bridges of Madison County, National Public Radio’s biased reporting on renewable energy, the urban-rural divide, and why her opposition to Big Wind is about “the health, safety, and welfare of the people.” Stancil told me that the “essential role of government is to make sure that we don’t bring things into our county or harm our people knowingly and we are knowingly doing this basically, for money. It’s all about the money. Whether it’s money for the leaseholders or is money to pick, make sure we don’t get lose a lawsuit. It’s still money. And I believe people are worth more than money.”
MidAmerican’s push to install more wind turbines in the county has caused a major split in the county. I won’t spoil the episode by trying to explain it here. But what has happened in Madison County is similar to what I have heard repeatedly from rural landowners across the country: when Big Wind comes into a county, it often ends up splitting the community. That’s clearly what has happened in Madison County.
Again, here’s a link to the audio. And here’s a link to the episode on YouTube.
Mark Nelson on Ukraine and commodity prices: "anything that burns is going to be burned"
I met Mark Nelson a few years ago through the Breakthrough Institute and immediately saw that the fire burns brightly in him. Mark, the managing director of the Radiant Energy Fund, joined the podcast for the third time to talk about the global energy crisis after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We discussed the soaring price of coal (the Newcastle benchmark is now over $400 per ton), Germany’s plans to restart the three nuclear plants it closed in December, France’s nuclear sector, and why the crisis may end up bringing more industrial plants to the United States. Among Mark’s comments were “It takes money to make money, it takes energy to make energy. How much energy does it take to make your energy? Well, it depends on how good your energy is, the money, the energy, the effort had to go in previously, to make sure you have energy now. And not enough effort and money, it turns out to have gone into producing energy. And now we don’t have it.”
When I asked him if there’s room for hope, he said, “Yeah, there’s room for optimism. All those factories that need to leave Europe? We’re gonna get a bunch of them. We’ve got a lot of energy, they’re going to come to the US. Yeah, there was $300 billion of money burned in the shale revolution...we can think of that as a donation now. A donation to America to be the -- this is the optimism -- the preserve of low-cost energy to rebuild a Europe that’s about to be devastated.”
That may be a grim prospect, but it sounds right. Europe is going to deindustrialize and the US, for better or worse, may be the destination for a lot of those facilities that simply can’t afford to operate in Europe anymore. It was a good, but sobering, conversation. Here’s a link. And here’s the video on YouTube. Please share it.
That's a Black-crested Titmouse, you imbecile...
Last Friday, a few hours after I sent out my “news” letter, I got an email from my pal and birding mentor, Frank Kurzawa, who gently reminded me that I still don’t very much about birds. As you may recall, last week, I wrote about the Tufted Titmouse. Frank wrote, saying “I agree that’s a photograph of a tufted titmouse, but I would bet dollars to donuts that the majority of titmice that you see at your feeder are either Black-crested or Black-crested x Tufted hybrids. I know that’s a small point, so I probably sound a bit pedantic. Oh well. It turns out that we are near the edge of the Tufted Titmouse range, which is east of us. So we do get a lot of hybrids in addition to purebred Black-crested. But according to e-bird, Tufted Titmice are rare in Austin. In reality, I don’t usually get a good enough look at the crest, and don’t have the ability to distinguish their calls. So I usually assume that I’m seeing a Black-crested or hybrid. Maybe that means you really do have a lot of Tufted Titmice after all.”
(The image of the Titmice above is a photo from my vintage Field Guide To The Birds of Texas.)
Frank’s email reminded me that no matter that I’ve been doing it for 30 years, I still feel like a beginning birder. It also reminded me of something that I have found to be true: the smaller the bird, the harder it is to identify. Okay. So what about the Black-crested Titmouse, (Baeolophus atricristatus)? Audubon says this:
A characteristic bird of much of southern and central Texas, barely extending northward into southwestern Oklahoma. This is a close relative of the Tufted Titmouse of eastern North America, and was treated as a subspecies at one time. Where the ranges of the two species meet in east-central Texas, they sometimes interbreed, producing hybrids that may show a dark gray crest and a reddish brown forehead...insects make up the majority of the annual diet, with caterpillars the most important prey in summer; also eats wasps, bees, beetles, true bugs, and many others, including many insect eggs and pupae. Also eats some spiders and snails. Seeds, nuts, berries, and small fruits are important in diet, especially in wint
Have a good weekend.
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