As a part-time teacher of energy subjects, I listened intently to the president's State of the Union speech for his position on energy issues.
When he used the meaningless term "clean energy" twice, I decided to count. He used it several times in the speech without explaining what he meant. Like the term "energy independence," clean energy can mean anything.
He appeared to reverse himself on nuclear energy, saying he wanted "a new generation of safe, clean nuclear plants for this country."
I don't know where he has been. We already have 104 safe clean nuclear power plant reactors. More of the same will do nicely. Does his comment mean he will reverse himself and restore Yucca Mountain funding for spent fuel storage?
He also used that familiar oxymoron "clean coal." There is no such thing. In the course of a year, U.S. coal plants produce more than 100 million tons of toxic coal ash, not to mention what goes up the stack.
Finally, he didn't mention natural gas, the one relatively clean fuel that we are going to have to use a lot of in the next few decades.
President Obama is a man of high intelligence, but like nearly all of our lawyer leaders, he has limited knowledge of energy technology and economics.
Rolf Westgard,
Deerwood
(Westgard teaches energy classes for the University of Minnesota College of Continuing Education.)
