Government incentives are smothering free enterprise.
Michael T. Burr is Fortnightly’s editor-in-chief. Email him at burr@pur.com.
When Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced legislation in November 2009 aimed at doubling America’s nuclear power capacity within 20 years, he compared the clean-energy challenge to fighting a war.
“If we were going to war, we wouldn’t mothball our nuclear navy and start subsidizing sailboats,” he told attendees at the American Nuclear Society’s winter meeting. “If addressing climate change and creating low-cost, reliable energy are national imperatives, we shouldn’t stop building nuclear plants and start subsidizing windmills.”
Alexander’s bill, co-sponsored with Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), would provide $100 billion in federal loan guarantee capacity for nuclear plants and other similarly capital-intensive projects that produce energy without emitting carbon. It would direct the Department of Energy to conduct what Alexander called “mini-Manhattan Projects” to advance clean-energy technologies.