John McCain and Barack Obama both talk about energy independence. Both also talk about the need to drill for oil offshore. Obama says oil companies should use their leases, or lose them. McCain once put the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, off-limits, “for now.” But that was before he picked Sarah “Drill Baby Drill” Palin for V. P., Now he calls her an “Energy Expert” and says “Sarah Palin knows more about energy than anyone else in America.”

Palin wants to drill in ANWR. She also doesn’t understand the science that has been used to study global warming, preferring to believe that it doesn’t exist.

Obama reminds us that drilling won’t help much and won’t help at all in the near future. Obama and McCain also talk about solar and wind – but Obama talks about about building a new energy economy.  And McCain has a history of voting against solar and wind because he’s against subsidies.  He’s for nuclear power, even tho the nuclear industry relies on subsidies.  Maybe I’m wrong, but I get the feeling that Obama knows what he’s talking about.

McCain says nuclear power is safe, nuclear submarines are safe. He wants to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2035, and another 55 after that. He wants to plan and build a total of 100 new nuclear plants.

We know that nuclear power plants can be operated more or less safely, and pose risks that many consider to be acceptable. There have been no major accidents since Chernobyl, and that plant was built in the Soviet Union, where the Communists never took safety seriously. While Three Mile Island was a serious failure, and an economic disaster, it happened a long time ago. We may be able to build nukes that are more or less safe, but but where is McCain going to put 45 or 100 new nuclear power plants? What is he going to do with the wastes? And how is he going to pay for 45 or 100 new nukes? He doesn’t seem to know that compared to new nuclear plants, offshore wind is almost half the price and land based wind is about one third the price per gigawatt of capacity, and that solar, while slightly more expensive, has much lower maintenance costs. Both wind and solar provide power with zero fuel costs, no pollution, zero waste management costs, no need for evacuation plans, no need for security forces, no terrorist threat.

The last nuclear plant completed, Watts Barr I, in Tennessee was completed in 1996.  It was started in 1973.  It took 23 years to build.

There have been zero new nuclear power plants built in this country for 12 years, and nothing started since the 1970’s.

McCain also doesn’t seem to understand that wind and solar offer clean sustainable fuel-free, pollution-free, secure power. And he  doesn’t realize that nuclear power requires a security force, a waste management infrastructure, and a regulatory bureaucracy that is not necessary with solar and wind.

It looks to me that Obama knows all  this, and has his eyes and options open; while McCain has his mind made up based on what was thought to be true 30 or 40 years ago.  I see wind and solar as much better for the economy and the environment than nuclear, and see Obama as a much better choice for President.