It's because of environmentalists like Stewart Brand. Watch him being interviewed by Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report. He sounds like a spokesperson for electric utilities.
Brand wants us to stop using fossil fuels to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The short-term solution to Brand is nuclear power. While it is true that nuclear power is currently the cleanest option among the large-scale options in terms of emissions (solar and wind currently aren't large scale), Brand glosses over the problems with nuclear power.
Nuclear waste? Not much of a problem to Brand. Nuclear power generates very little waste so you just store it on-site. If the amount of nuclear waste is so small that it can be stored on-site, why was the government contemplating storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain? Colbert didn't ask so Brand didn't have to answer, but Brand mentioned drilling down 3 miles into the ground and storing the nuclear waste there, with concrete around it.
What about the dangers of meltdowns like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island? Apparently there is no longer any danger of meltdowns at nuclear power plants. And there never could be a problem with a nuclear power plant, right? Same way offshore oil rigs are safe and never malfunction.
After pimping nuclear power Brand shilled for "clean coal". Charles Davis explained "clean coal" better than me.
For starters, take the Kerry-Lieberman proposal’s subsidies for “clean coal,” a P.R. term that refers to capturing a coal plant's carbon emissions and storing them under ground -- though nobody’s actually doing that at the moment -- while passing legal liability for any problems onto to taxpayers. Despite being the leading contributor to climate change -- proponents of the bill would say because -- coal companies stand to reap tens of billions of dollars over the next few decades in direct subsidies for what is the climate policy-equivalent of cleaning the floors by sweeping dirt under a rug – except sweeping dirt under a rug is technically and commercially feasible.
So Brand thinks nuclear energy and clean coal are the solutions to our environmental problems. Is Brand an environmentalist or a lobbyist for the electric utilities? It's hard to tell. Brand's views are identical to the utilities.
The problem with the environmental movement is their single-minded obsession with global warming and greenhouse gasses. Do whatever it takes to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, even if it harms the environment in the process.
