FDR wanted the TVA to be ...
"... forever a yardstick to prevent extortion against the public and to
encourage the wider use of that servant of the people -- electric power."
Dear Friend,
In this Age of Privatization and Deregulation, it is perhaps heresy to
suggest that sometimes public[government] ownership of utilities has any
merit at all, but ...
... read the history! (www.tva.gov) Sometimes government -- our government
-- MUST step into the free-market free-for-all just simply to get things
which are in the public interest done.
Dear Friend,
Please permit me to commit heresy and propose an updated version of FDR's
"New Deal" TVA project: A new government corporation created specifically to
integrate and utilize our national nuclear energy resources for the peacetime
generation of "that servant of the people -- electric power" -- nuclear
power! -- [it can be] the cheapest, cleanest, and safest of our electricity
generation fuel alternatives if it is so managed as such.
What would the "new" government corporation do? For a start, it would assume
control of the Yucca Mountain High-level Nuclear Repository project. It has
been reported that the DOE has already spent more than six billion dollars
just studying the Yucca Mountain site. Enough already! For six billion
dollars, we could have already built the Mother of All Nuclear Storage
Facilities -- plus a nuclear reprocessing plant -- plus a regional nuclear
power generating complex (the low bid on the government contract to build
Hoover Dam was only 48.9 million dollars -- but that was back in 1933 when
times were depressed).
Heresy? Is it heresy to have our Federal government get into the business of
building and operating nuclear power plants? Ask the Department of Navy
from whence came the money to build the Warrior-class nuclear submarines and
Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carriers.
Like it or not, the USA is a nuclear power -- we live in a nuclear world. We
have just not done a very good job of applying nuclear technology to civilian
uses here at home. Safety? The U.S. Navy makes the claim that the
technicians who operate the power plants onboard the nuclear subs are
subjected to less radiation during a two-month underwater cruise than they
would have been subjected to by background (natural) radiation during the
same period had they been stationed stateside! Those claims are undoubtedly
true. Could the U.S. Government (the new nuclear corporation based upon the
TVA example) obtain a "permit" to build a nuclear power plant complex on
Federal land at Yucca Mountain? One supposes that if they wished to do so,
then obtaining a permit would be almost as difficult as obtaining the
harbour-master's permission to dock a nuclear sub at San Diego -- no problem.
Perhaps the real problem with the lagging pace of peacetime nuclear energy
usage here in the USA lies in the fact that our government has not taken a
strong leadership role in getting it done -- the private sector has not had a
"yardstick" by which to gauge its own progress.
We complain about our dependence upon foreign oil, but we do nothing to
relieve that dependence. We complain about our "dirty" air, and yet we
suffer through all the smog alert days hoping for it to clear tomorrow.
France, on the other hand, has today about 80% of its electricity generated
by nuclear power and also has the cleanest air in Europe -- plus they have
reduced their dependence upon imported oil during the same time frame (these
last 20 years) in which we have increased our own dependence. Does our
energy policy make better sense than the French policy?
Pease, please take some time to visit the TVA website (www.tva.gov) -- and --
if after reading the TVA history you agree with me that history does repeat
and that once again it is time for government action to either give OR APPLY
a yardstick to the utility industry, then let your elected representatives in
Congress know. Even if you may disagree with me about Yucca Mountain and
nuclear energy, let us do agree to be proactive about getting our country
back on track towards a rational energy policy. Like Nevada's popular Judge
Mills Lane might say, "Let's get it on!"
Sincerely yours,
Buddy M. Beard
Sparks, Nevada
03/02/01