Opinion: Despite Obama's push, nuclear era not on the horizon

By Dick Polman, printed in the Rochester Post-Bulletin
3/29/2010 5:28:05 AM

Is it OK if I talk about something besides health-care reform now? I know we're all fixated on the fate of President Obama's signature mission, but surely we can agree that his newly announced bid to build more nuclear power plants is worth a thousand words. The politics alone are fascinating.

Not that long ago, any Democratic president daring to fly a "More Nukes" banner would have been fried by his own base. Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and the Boss would have plugged in for a protest concert, just as they did for the "No Nukes" show in '79. But Obama's request for $54 billion in federal loan guarantees, and his State of the Union pitch for "a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants," have barely moved the ire meter.