Obama said it - 'clean' coal, nuclear power.

[Dover]

"As president, as president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America.

And I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy -- wind power, and solar power (OTCBB:SOPW) , and the next generation of biofuels -- an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced."


I noticed that Gore didn't mention those two in his speech.

Thoughts?

[TheWraith]

1. Obama's a pragmatist. We need to be carbon neutral, fast.

Coal's going to be around for awhile, so it needs to be as clean as possible. Nuclear allows us to replace a lot of base-load power in a compact and environmentally responsible way.

[RubyDuby in GA]

2. I kinda cringed when he said those, but trust me - it's not a deal breaker for me

It's no where near a deal breaker.

[Dover]

3. I just added his actual words from the speech transcript to my OP

and completely forgot about the biofuels. Also sounds like an auto company bailout might be
on the agenda as well.

[kristopher]

4. Read his platform

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=165561&mesg_id=165675

He commits to having solutions to nuclear energy's problems before building more plants and to extreme measures like requiring carbon emitting coal plants to shut down as an incentive to develop carbon capture coal plants. Nuclear is already too expensive to compete and this sort of approach to coal would be its economic death.

His policy is built around renewable deployment. He's working to get elected right now, but remember that he promised to put Gore in charge of the climate change/energy problem. Do you think it was a coincidence Gore spoke just before Obama?

[chknltl]

6. Thank You kristopher

You just renewed my hope and blew away my post (just below yours, post#5). My concerns for corporatism taking over this country are unchanged but I feel a whole lot better about Senator Obama and what he said last night regarding clean coal and safe nukes because of your words in this post. Thanks again.

[chknltl]

5. The 'safe nuclear' one made me cringe too... (lengthy)

Not a deal breaker for me either BUT....
My biggest issue with Washington DC is that we have the 'BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY'. Which always begs the question: "Exactly WHO owns that government?" Senator Obama is still too new to be bought and paid for...well that's been my hope at any rate. Pretty much everything that is bad that our government has undertaken can be linked to those who made mega-profits from it. For instance: the War in Iraq is linked to the Big Oil Gang, The War Profiteers and the Military Industrial Complex. These three had their $$ invested into the politicians who made the war in Iraq happen! Who suffered? WE THE PEOPLE suffered, Iraq suffered, the entire world has suffered! Yet who profited??? Do you suppose they cared at all about those who suffered?

America is supposed to be a representative democracy. This means representing WE THE PEOPLE. A government which represents WE THE CORPORATIONS is NOT a representative democracy at all! Many would call it corporatist- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism -it is THE BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY! This kind of government will destroy a representative democracy. We here complain (rightly so) about the shredding of our Constitution, well the very roots of that destruction are in that corporatism. The tragic society that George Orwell painted so clearly for us was run by and for a corporate government. THAT is where corporatism in our representative democracy will wind up if WE THE PEOPLE can not find some way to reverse this.

When Barack Obama said 'clean coal' and 'safe nuclear' my cringe was not so much for the nuclear energy nightmare-which I AM VERY MUCH AGAINST, my cringe was instead for my concern that Senator Obama may be being influenced by corporate $$. Do I know for a fact that he is being courted by these corporatists or actually now in their pocketbook? No-of course not, but the concern IS THERE! Those corporatists have a LOT of $$ and they do indeed continue the attack on our government-our very democracy. I see this election as a struggle between We The People vs Corporatism, not as one between Democrats and Republicans. In my heart, I want to see We The People TAKE BACK our government-our representative democracy. When Barrack Obama included Clean Coal and Safe Nuclear in his speech last night, my heart did indeed skip a beat....and not in a good way.