McCain Sets Goal of 45 New Nuclear Reactors by 2030
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: June 19, 2008
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Senator John McCain said Wednesday that
he wanted 45 new nuclear reactors built in the United States by 2030, a
course he called "as difficult as it is necessary."
In his third straight day of campaign speechmaking about energy and
$4-a-gallon gasoline, Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee,
told the crowd at a town-hall-style meeting at Missouri State
University that he saw nuclear power as a clean, safe alternative to
traditional sources of energy that emit greenhouse gases. He said his
ultimate goal was 100 new nuclear plants.
Mr. McCain has long promoted nuclear reactors, but Wednesday was the
first time that he specified the number of plants he envisioned.
Currently there are 104 reactors in the country supplying some 20
percent of electricity consumed. No new nuclear power plant has been
built in the United States since the 1970s.
"China, Russia and India are all planning to build more than
a hundred new power plants among them in the coming decades,"
Mr. McCain said in this pocket of Missouri that is reliably Republican.
"Across Europe there are 197 reactors in operation, and
nations including France and Belgium derive more than half their
electricity from nuclear power. And if all of these nations can find a
way to carry out great goals in energy policy, then I assure you that
the United States is more than equal to the challenge."
[...]
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Mr. McCain's chief domestic policy
adviser, said Mr. McCain had arrived at the goal of 45 as consistent
with his desire to expand nuclear power, "but not so large
as to be infeasible given permitting and construction times."
In recent years, I have been voting for candidates primarily based on
what I judge to be
reasonable foreign policy
(which is pretty much the opposite of President Bush's foreign policy
positions). I definitely side with Obama on foreign policy (Senator
McCain's foreign policy is identical to that of President Bush).
However, Senator McCain just might win me over with his energy policy.
