Nuclear Crisis in Japan, BP Gulf Oil Spill, Beg Us to Reconsider Energy Policy

As we watch the nuclear power event unfold in Japan, we can't help but wonder about the vulnerabilities of other nuclear facilities. Will the San Onofre nuclear generating facility, for example, in California be able to withstand a quake and subsequent tsunami? Where else around the world are aging nuclear plants creating potential hazards?

Thinking back to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, just how many hundreds of thousands of people will eventually have adverse health effects? When will the ecosystems destroyed be restored?

While nuclear power and deep sea oil drilling are two different animals, their similarities are problematic. Both are technologies with little margin for error. Failing at either usually means failing big. Consequences for a lapse in oversight can despoil an area for years. The inability for a facility to withstand natural disaster can be just as damning.

The first thing we need to acknowledge in terms of an energy debate is that we have clear choices. It isn't as if we are wholly dependent on any source. We could, with sufficient effort, completely alter the way we produce, transmit, and consume energy. There is no unbreakable rule of physics strapping us to petroleum, coal, or nuclear power.

As of this writing, power has been restored to the damaged facilities in Japan, but it's not clear yet if it will be sufficient to prevent further release of radiation. Meanwhile, an old familiar pattern is emerging.

Information is coming out possibly implicating Tokyo Electric Power Company as being at least overly complacent, and likely negligent when it comes to safety reporting. If indeed there was falsification of safety records, TEPCO joins big oil, big coal, Wall Street, etc. Corporate malfeasance seems to be standard operating procedure at corporations the world over.

Conservatives will tell us we need less regulation, that only corporations can create jobs, do good in communities, make a tax base, run a power plant, or teach children properly. Republicans say we need to slash corporate taxes when they are coming off their best year ever, and we need to strip programs that help the poor.

As for energy, the conservative mind cannot seem to see past the self-installed blinders showing only fossil fuels and nuclear power as the way to supply energy. They are deathly afraid of embracing anything even remotely seen as progressive. Theirs is the mind of sloth, to lazy to think beyond what they are told.

Mind you, this is not meant to be a complete indictment of fossil fuels or nuclear energy. Just an acknowledgment of the facts. We will need all at some level. But we should be heavily regulating them, while moving strongly away from dependence.

Has there ever been a windmill metldown? A solar spill? There is so much energy available in the wind, from the sun, out of the waves. We need to utilize all alternative sources to protect ourselves, our planet, and our economy.