Let's All Sit in the Dark: No Energy Source is Good Enough
Provoked by activist reactions to the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan, RealClearScience editor Alex Berezow has a nice piece summarizing the numberless discontents that environmentalists have with any plausible source of large-scale energy:
It was only a matter of time before environmentalists would point toward Japan, say, "We told you so," and then declare a moral victory for anti-nuclear activism. Merely for the sake of argument, let's pretend they are right.
Eliminating nuclear power might be a nice experiment. But there is one big problem: Environmentalists are trying to eliminate all the other alternatives, as well.
Oil? Spills and carbon emissions. Coal? Mountaintop removal and carbon emissions. Natural gas? Fracking and carbon emissions. Hydro? Strangling wild rivers and methane emissions. Wind? OK, but not in scenic areas like off Cape Cod or on mountain ridges in West Virginia and don't kill any birds. Solar? OK, but not in fragile deserts where it destroys Native American holy sites. Wind & Solar? Certainly don't want any unsightly high-voltage power lines criss-crossing the countryside.
Berezow's whole article is well worth reading.
Disclosure: I am happy to say that RealClearScience occasionally includes some of my articles.