State of the Union - Energy

In a statement that could only be asked by a lawyer, Bill Clinton once said "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

George Bush is more direct. He uses what Orwell described as Double-Speak, using terms to mean the opposite of what the words mean. So in his State of the Union Address, he said we need clean energy, they said we need more coal and nuclear power.

Coal is not clean. In the new version of 'We Shall Not Be Moved,' the folk-singer XB Cold Fingers says "Ain't no such thing as 'clean coal.' " If it's in song it must be right. Well not really. But in this case - what they call 'clean coal' has been scrubbed of most of the sulphur and mercury. And if you're going to burn coal, it should be burned clean. However there's still boat-loads of carbon.

He said Nuclear power don't have no emissions. What about radio-active wastes? What about all the greenhouse gases released during the nuclear fuel cycle?

And forget the impact on the environment, what about the risks of terrorism, the national security implications of nuclear power? If the killers of Sept 11 had flown those hijacked planes into Oyster Creek much of the Jersey Shore, and the Eastern Seaboard would be like Chernobyl - condemned, abandoned, and uninhabitable.