Tomorrow is Halloween, which has become a fairly harmless holiday, unless you’re one of those people who think Halloween is an unholy alliance between Satan worshippers and Hallmark cards. After all witches, goblins and the occasional headless horseman are nothing to get upset over compared to say, the conniption fits Wall Street has been through in the past week.
Trick or treating isn’t what it used to be, either. Sure it’s still hazardous for the kids’ teeth to eat all that candy at once, but it isn’t really trick or treat because everyone gives out treats; very few of those little goblins out there have a repertoire of tricks anymore.
Of course, I’m talking about small-scale, door-to-door trick or treating. On a much grander scale, trick or treating is alive and well. In honor of Halloween, I’d like to recognize the nationwide trick or treating effort being staged by the Nuclear Energy Institute of Washington, DC.
The nuclear energy debate in America is now well into its final stage. We know nuclear power is not safe, not cheap and not efficient. The only thing left to fight about is the waste. The trick-or-treaters in the nuclear industry are trying to get Congress to pass the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997. The act, if passed, would make the federal government responsible for all the waste generated by nuclear power plants.
The nuclear industry argues that the Department of Energy should be forced to build a central storage facility for used nuclear fuel rods. Right now, those fuel rods are either still in use or stored on site at nuke plants. Here’s where the trick comes in: these fuel rods will be radioactive for tens of thousands of years. They will be extraordinarily hazardous, difficult to care for and expensive to store. Every nuclear storage site ever built has leaked. These fuel rods are a time bomb waiting to go off and the nuclear industry wants to hand the liability and the responsibility to the feds before it does.
Here’s the real kicker. The – ahem – fact sheet from the Nuclear Energy Institute says if Congress doesn’t force the Department of Energy to accept nuclear waste, it could cost electricity customers billions of dollars. Trick or treat! That’s certainly a goblin at the door. We don’t want electricity customers – that’s you and me – to have to pay billions of dollars. Let’s force the federal government to take the nuke waste, then it will be paid for by – you and me. Trick or treat – either way you slice it, you and I will foot the bill. The only difference is the bottom line of the nuclear industry.
These are the people who soaped our windows and tipped over our outhouse. The American public has never been in favor of nuclear power, but these guys rammed the plants down our throats, made what scant profit was to be had from them through usurious rates and now they want to stick us with 50 centuries of hazardous, dead-end spending.
It ‘s time we pulled the mask off this monster and expose the snot-nosed prankster underneath, then kick him in the pants and send him home to his mother.
Trick or Treat
Tomorrow is Halloween, which has become a fairly harmless holiday, unless you’re one of those people who think Halloween is an unholy alliance between Satan worshippers and Hallmark cards. After all witches, goblins and the occasional headless horseman are nothing to get upset over compared to say, the conniption fits Wall Street has been through in the past week.
Trick or treating isn’t what it used to be, either. Sure it’s still hazardous for the kids’ teeth to eat all that candy at once, but it isn’t really trick or treat because everyone gives out treats; very few of those little goblins out there have a repertoire of tricks anymore.
Of course, I’m talking about small-scale, door-to-door trick or treating. On a much grander scale, trick or treating is alive and well. In honor of Halloween, I’d like to recognize the nationwide trick or treating effort being staged by the Nuclear Energy Institute of Washington, DC.
The nuclear energy debate in America is now well into its final stage. We know nuclear power is not safe, not cheap and not efficient. The only thing left to fight about is the waste. The trick-or-treaters in the nuclear industry are trying to get Congress to pass the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997. The act, if passed, would make the federal government responsible for all the waste generated by nuclear power plants.
The nuclear industry argues that the Department of Energy should be forced to build a central storage facility for used nuclear fuel rods. Right now, those fuel rods are either still in use or stored on site at nuke plants. Here’s where the trick comes in: these fuel rods will be radioactive for tens of thousands of years. They will be extraordinarily hazardous, difficult to care for and expensive to store. Every nuclear storage site ever built has leaked. These fuel rods are a time bomb waiting to go off and the nuclear industry wants to hand the liability and the responsibility to the feds before it does.
Here’s the real kicker. The – ahem – fact sheet from the Nuclear Energy Institute says if Congress doesn’t force the Department of Energy to accept nuclear waste, it could cost electricity customers billions of dollars. Trick or treat! That’s certainly a goblin at the door. We don’t want electricity customers – that’s you and me – to have to pay billions of dollars. Let’s force the federal government to take the nuke waste, then it will be paid for by – you and me. Trick or treat – either way you slice it, you and I will foot the bill. The only difference is the bottom line of the nuclear industry.
These are the people who soaped our windows and tipped over our outhouse. The American public has never been in favor of nuclear power, but these guys rammed the plants down our throats, made what scant profit was to be had from them through usurious rates and now they want to stick us with 50 centuries of hazardous, dead-end spending.
It ‘s time we pulled the mask off this monster and expose the snot-nosed prankster underneath, then kick him in the pants and send him home to his mother.