Of course, we're all going to live in an EV nirvana so there's no need to read this paper.

[NNadir]

13. Tell us how you really feel. This sort of thing goes back to the days of David Brower.

He "traded" Glen Canyon for the Grand Canyon in the 1960s.

He didn't own Glen Canyon - it belonged to humanity, and of course, the creatures that lived there - but he felt fine trading it nevertheless.

And then there's John Muir and the Hetch Hetchy, another battle lost.

And yes, there was a proposal to turn the Grand Canyon into another Lake Powell. I'm glad we saved the Grand Canyon, but...but...but...

Now of course, today the Colorado River is not merely wounded; it's dying. The reason is climate change. One reason for climate change is all the years wasted on a reactionary effort to return to so called "renewable energy," centuries after humanity abandoned it for a reason. It wasted time; it wasted money; and much destruction resulted.

I can't say I entirely fault President Biden for this state of affairs. In the 19 years I've been writing here, among my fellow Democrats there's been a great deal of enthusiasm for mining coal just so long as the coal goes into making steel for wind turbine posts. I don't see how President Biden could say that he opposes wind energy.

I'm fine saying it; I'm not sure he could.

Wind power, and for that matter, solar power, is the Ivermectin of climate change.

There has been visceral hatred of nuclear energy on the left; our answer, on the left, to creationism on their side, the right, and of course, now, their loony anti-vax movement that really reminds me of the anti-nuclear movement.

Now I see dunderhead anti-nukes trying to tell me they're not anti-nukes. They apparently think I'm as stupid as they have been for decades.

There's very little Schadenfreude here on my part; the future of my family is every bit as threatened as anyone else's. What has happened already is a tragedy, to be sure.

This said, some of the basic research for the so called "renewable energy" industry is not a total waste, and can be modified to fit less stupid approaches. This is particularly true of thermal solar nonsense. I often feel when reading those papers that the authors stuck "solar thermal" on the title to get grants.

I do hope we can see clearly before killing off desert tortoises and the like, trashing Nevada. I agree. It's a beautiful State, worthy of preservation.

I can see, even here, in "Renewables will save us" fantasy land, a change taking place.

The President's nuclear policy is rather enlightened I think. It looks like he's going to join the fight to save Diablo Canyon, although at this point, it's a long shot.

Frankly Biden's policies are a damned sight better than Obama's. Obama started off strong by hiring Steven Chu, but ended up, at the behest of Markey, appointing the complete idiot Gregory Jaczko to the NRC. Jaczko, like all anti-nukes doesn't give a shit how many tens and hundreds of millions of people die from air pollution if he can imagine in his trivializing little head that someone somewhere might die from radiation.

This week I loaned my son Alvin Weinberg's The First Nuclear Era. What's going on in our national labs today reminds me very much of those times. The reactors being built are not the ones I might have designed, but they all show creativity and open minds. The happiest thing for me is to see is the dream of Seikimoto's "Candle" reactors reaching commercialization. I attribute this state of affairs to President Biden's good will.

There's an outside chance the world will be saved, something of a long shot, but a chance. If it is saved, nuclear engineers will save it.