I just came home from taping a show for the KOCE’s Inside OC with Rick Reiff, the Editor of the Orange County Business Journal. We were talking about high gas prices and how they may impact Orange County. I mentioned that we need to drill for our own oil and we need more nuclear power if we expect to electrify our transportation system as the gentleman from the South Coast Air Quality Management District advocated.
Inspired, I went home and mowed my lawn with my nuclear-powered lawn mower. Nuclear powered? Yes, nuclear powered. Some 29 miles south of home sits the twin nuclear reactors of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. These reactors produce about six percent of California’s power. Given my proximity to the plant, I bet that at least a third of the electrons making a trip through my zero-emissions electric lawn mower visited San Onofre shortly before I used their energy to cut my lawn.
Keeping with the nuclear theme, the British press, in the form of The Guardian, a left-leaning newspaper (but then I’m redundant), chronicled my call for more nuclear power to meet California’s otherwise impossible greenhouse gas reduction mandates in an article entitled, “California emissions plan won’t be easy or cheap.” An excerpt of the article is below:
California, which enjoyed widespread praise this week for its ambitious plan to combat global warming, now faces the tough part: making it work.
On Thursday, the most populous U.S. state unveiled a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels over the next 12 years with requirements for cleaner cars, more solar and wind energy and stringent caps on big polluting industries.
Many are skeptical of that claim, saying demands for more renewable power and cleaner transportation fuels — each of which are pricier than traditional fuel sources — are sure to drive up the state’s energy costs.
California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, in a letter to Nichols, said he was disappointed that the plan did not advocate for more nuclear plants, which produce cheaper electricity with no harmful emissions.
“I see no other physical way we can meet our ambitious goals,” DeVore wrote.
Let’s hear it for the leftwing British press – at least they published my response to California’s plan to bankrupt itself.
All the best,
Chuck DeVore
California State Assemblyman, 70th District
www.ChuckDeVore.com
