Patrick Moore Resumes Pro-Nuclear Push

Dr. Patrick Moore, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace, is making another big splash today with an op-ed in favor of the expansion of the use of nuclear energy in today's Washington Post:

n the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That's the conviction that inspired Greenpeace's first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change.

Look at it this way: More than 600 coal-fired electric plants in the United States produce 36 percent of U.S. emissions -- or nearly 10 percent of global emissions -- of CO2, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. Nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce these emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power. And these days it can do so safely.

Plenty of folks in the Blogosphere are picking up on Moore's piece, like our friend Pat Cleary at NAM Blog. For a complete list of bloggers who are buzzing over Moore's piece, click here.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Greenpeace