Letters 5/12/05

Nuclear power‘s promise
Kudos to James Kunstler (“The Long Emergency,” Express 4/14). For years I have listened to partially informed or uninformed diatribes against nuclear energy. Most opposition comes from either misunderstanding the process or ignorance of facts.
Ninety eight percent of the public hasn’t the slightest idea of what happened at Chemobyl, the sequence of events, how the plant was constructed, and how Russian plant construction compares to our own. Yet, we have many sagely speaking from their lack of the facts that nuclear energy is the bogeyman of our energy choices.
What did the operators at Chemobyl do to cause the accident? Can anyone other than someone who works and was trained at a nuclear facility tell me? I was a nuclear operator for 27 years and would love to engage anyone in a factual discussion. Any takers?
Anyone living near Three Mile Island during the accident in 1979 that moved to Denver to be “safe” doubled or tripled their annual radiation dose just by moving to Denver. I worked at Cook Nuclear Plant downstate. Our operating license limited us to releasing less activity to Lake Michigan per year than what is received annually from the St. Joseph River. If Cook put as much radioactivity into the lake as the river does, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would shut them down!
The “nuclear issue” is dead in Europe? (Letters, “No Nukes,“ 4/28) Is that why 80% of France’s power comes from nuclear generating plants? Or why France has successfully tackled the waste issue using glass vitrification (a technology WE developed) to permanently and safely immobilize waste products?
We don’t have a viable program here because of government ineptitude, not because the technology isn’t available.
Build wind farms? Sure, convince the NIMBY crowd in my area who don’t want any more (we already have two large wind generators). Wind generators are under fire from environmentalists in California because they kill birds. Next?
I’ve yet to see an INFORMED discussion about ALL sources of energy. Nukes don’t generate greenhouse gas. Anything that burns does. Radiation decays. Toxic materials used in manufacture of solar cells remain toxic forever.
Time for a sensible and informed discussion about the energy issue. Sadly, many only look at what pleases them and become dogmatic ideologues without becoming knowledgeable. Where is Diogenes?

Lee Oslund • Mackinaw City

Perilous times
We are a nation of sheep, sleep-walking through perilous times, and following any message that doesn’t rattle our feel-good status quo.
Well folks, it’s time to wake up! As Richard Heinber’s book jacket says: “The Party is Over.”
Peaking of world oil and gas reserves is happening, and no amount of exploration, wars for oil, or pleading with the Saudis will change the fact that the world is on the down-slope of supply just as world usage is on the rise. We are all a part of the world’s finite biosphere with its limited resources of fossil fuel.
Oil and gas depletion has been thoroughly documented by scientists in this country and around the world, and we ignore it at our peril. This is fast becoming the greatest threat facing the human race. As prices for transportation, manufactured goods, medicines, agricultural products and home energy escalate, we must all cooperate to find local, sustainable answers.
Don’t take my word for this. Do your own research. There are many books on the subject including Jim Kunstler’s “The
Long Emergency” and web sites such as: www.drydipstick.com, www.peak.oil.com and www.postcarbon.org
We owe it to our children and all future generations of this world to read, learn, understand and cooperate while we still have time. This is an unprecedented opportunity to come together to work to avert future general catastrophe, and make our region truly sustainable. Sleep-walking is not an option.

Ann Rogers • TC

The value of term limits
When legislators and lobbyists get together in Lansing they inevitably want to tinker with term limits. Recently Anthony F. Earley Jr., president of DTE, the state’s largest monopoly electric company, urged big business to work to repeal Michigan’s term limits. Why? Term limits keep legislators better under the control of voters, not powerful lobbyists.
The success of term limits is witnessed each time a lobbyist complains how difficult it has become for lobbyists to achieve their aims in our capitol.

Scott Tillman • Fremont

Happy birthday MLUI
Wow, 10 years old! The Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) is celebrating its
first decade and they certainly deserve a big happy birthday. There have been few other organizations in Northern Michigan, or in the State of Michigan, which have advanced the agenda of economic and environmental security for our state. By tackling a variety of issues through the years they have helped create a climate for reasonable debate concerning our state‘s most daunting challenges.
In their early years their activism and research regarding the State of Michigan‘s oil and gas leasing practices resulted in
hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties added to the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund. the Trust Fund has frequently been used by local land conservancy organizations to purchase thousands of acres of wetlands, shorelines, forests and farmlands.
The MLUI folks have repeatedly taken risks by getting involved in controversial issues. They no doubt have ruffled the feathers of some who would much rather have an uninformed and apathetic citizenry. I encourage fellow citizens to go to www.mlui.org for more information or, better yet, send a happy 10th birthday check and become a supporter of this grassroots organization.

Gerard Grabowski • Bear Lake

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