Defending Nuclear Energy in Real Time

Hollywood has never been known as a place that's been terribly hospitable to nuclear energy, but it looks like that might be changing if Bill Maher, the host of HBO's Real Time has anything to do with it.

The following comes from a transcript from the program's April 13, 2007 edition where Maher brought up the topic in conversation with Sheryl Crow and Laurie David:

MR. MAHER: That was my next question. What about nuclear power? Because it seems to me that we’re going to have to go nuke if we really want to solve –

MS. CROW: I don’t think that’s true. We have better options than nuclear power, I mean, there’s never been a plant that’s actually even made money from nuclear power. It is so heavily subsidized by the government. We have other options that should be subsidized by the government, which are wind and solar.

MR. MAHER: But can wind and solar –

MS. CROW: And it’s just not a great viable option.

MR. MAHER: But can wind and solar provide all the energy we need? It doesn’t seem like –

MS. CROW: We have to investigate.

MS. DAVID: Listen, how about energy efficiency?

MS. CROW: Yes.

MS. DAVID: How about fuel economy standards? There are 100 things –

MR. MAHER: Yes.

MS. DAVID: That we should be doing before we start talking about more nuclear power plants.

MS. CROW: Absolutely.

MR. MAHER: Well, I don’t agree with you on that.

Wow. Sometimes you can find friends where you least expect them.