"The battle of the energy titans comes down to one great contest: nuclear vs. coal."

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. It presents the false dichotomy, “if not nuclear then coal”

Many point to Jimmy Carter’s energy policies in the same fashion. “Jimmy Carter was in favor of coal, rather than nuclear.”

Well, that was true to a point, however, what Jimmy Carter was in favor of was not coal as an end, but as a transitional energy source to clean sources (like solar.) He established research programs to develop these clean alternatives.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/carter-energy/

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If we wait, and do not act, then our factories will not be able to keep our people on the job with reduced supplies of fuel. Too few of our utilities will have switched to coal, our most abundant energy source.

We will not be ready to keep our transportation system running with smaller, more efficient cars and a better network of buses, trains and public transportation.

We will feel mounting pressure to plunder the environment. We will have a crash program to build more nuclear plants, strip-mine and burn more coal, and drill more offshore wells than we will need if we begin to conserve now. Inflation will soar, production will go down, people will lose their jobs. Intense competition will build up among nations and among the different regions within our own country.

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The tenth principle is that we must start now to develop the new, unconventional sources of energy we will rely on in the next century.

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Sadly, Reagan cut this R&D.