A Thoughtful Post About Excess

Karen Street blogs at A Musing Environment. The subtitle of her blog is A Friend looks at (mostly) the environment. Karen blogs from the somewhat unusual perspective of a member of the Society of Friends who is not opposed to nuclear power. The Friends do not take "creedal" positions. However, as a practical matter, the Friends emphasis on Christian pacifism has (mostly) spilled over into an anti-nuclear stance.

A few days ago, I posted It's the Energy,Why I Love Nuclear about the importance of electricity to the third world. Karen commented as follows:

One of your graphs shows among countries with GDP per capita over $30k, kWh per capita is >2.5x for some than others.

I add this because it can sound as if people advocating for the poor are also advocating for my right to waste. A lot more people will agree with you if you make this point.

I think that energy gives us choices, no matter how rich we are, and I answered Karen's comment in my post Prosperity for Rich Folks. Late last night, Karen commented upon that by sending a link to her most recent post, a very thoughtful essay about the environmental and spiritual dangers of excess.

I have another post about those grannies scheduled for later today, and a very busy morning ahead of me. I couldn't reply immediately to Karen's post anyway; I need to do some thinking about it. However, I didn't want the link to her post to remain buried deep in the comments of an older post on my blog. So here's the link and I encourage you to read it.

Are we richer if we make perceived convenience the priority?

The image is a painting by Albert Anker: "Excess" From Wikimedia.

About This Blog

Yes Vermont Yankee is a blog in support of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. Vermont Yankee is due to be relicensed in 2012, but is fighting fierce opposition from well-organized groups. For example, some anti-Yankee people are currently walking from Brattleboro to Montpelier. They are gathering accolades and publicity along the way.

The walkers apparently don't care that shutting down Yankee will mean burning more fossil fuels. Their leaders say that we will only burn more fossil fuels for a "short time" if Yankee is shut down. They claim that renewables will take over in three to five years. Will Vermont really have hundreds of megawatts of renewable baseload power in five years? I don't think so, and no reputable analyst thinks so.

Still, the anti-Vermont Yankee walkers accept the idea that Vermont will burn expensive fossil fuels for electricity for "three to five years" -- or maybe ten years, or maybe forever. They apparently don't concern themselves with global warming or pollution from fossil-fired plants. They just want to shut down Yankee, and they are very organized.

The Vermont Yankee power plant has been an asset to Vermont by providing safe, clean, reliable, inexpensive power. It has provided good jobs, charitable donations, and taxes. Yankee's low-cost electricity encourages business and employment in Vermont. Vermont Yankee has been, and can remain, a boon to the state and the region.

It is time that Vermont Yankee supporters become organized. This new blog can be a place where we can trade information. I hope it will become a rallying point for plant supporters.

You might wonder who is writing this blog. Do I work for Vermont Yankee? No. I am Meredith Angwin, a physical chemist. I have worked most of my life for the power industry. My background includes fossil fuels (patents in NOx control), risk management for natural gas pipelines, economic and corrosion assessments for geothermal energy, and corrosion control in nuclear power plants. I currently earn my living as a writer. Though I accept contracts from electric utilities and equipment suppliers (among other companies), this blog is not part of any paid work. It is completely my own, and I am responsible for its contents.

One final word. There are many excellent pro-nuclear blogs, and one of my friends asked why I wanted to start another one. However, most other blogs tend to cover the whole world, including nuclear construction in China, the latest word from Congress, and so forth. I live in Vermont, and I have started this blog specifically to concentrate on Vermont Yankee issues.