The Guardian: 'Decades ahead of his time': history catches up with visionary Jimmy Carter

[NNadir]

38. Fact check.

Jimmy Carter's energy ideas included FT gasoline. (Fischer-Tropsch = FT) This is a coal to liquids process and was based on the idea that the US had vast reserves of coal. At the time these processes were operating in Apartheid South Africa after having been industrialized in Nazi Germany. There have been no other industrial energy operations quite as dirty as FT "coal to liquids." Humanity is quite fortunate that effort failed.

He also shut down nuclear fuel reprocessing.

The latter choice was nowhere as disastrous as the former would have been, but neither the proposal nor the policy were good for the environment.

The idea that energy conservation would save the world was frankly contemptuous of the billions of non-Americans who lacked access to energy. It is unsurprising that Chinese and Indians did not agree to remain desperately impoverished so Americans could feel secure in their lifestyle while gasification/liquefaction of coal went industrial. The death toll associated with air pollution and climate change would have been even worse than the appalling numbers we are now seeing, most of which can be attributed to the demonization of nuclear energy.

Jimmy Carter is an outstanding human being for whom I voted twice. I cannot however characterize these primitive energy ideas, which might be excused in his time because we lacked enough insight to understand why they were bad ideas, as "visionary."

We are lucky they didn't come to pass.