We need to go ahead with more nuclear and we need to do it yesterday. The natural gas we can replace with nuclear. The oil problem isn't going away. More efficiency will help....more oil will help more.
And the problem with nuclear power plants is that the NRC will require the contractor to re-engineer the plant and rip out installed APPROVED equipment in the middle of the build to replace it with NEW equipment just approved. If they would approve the plans up front and not make the contractor change practically everything (several times) in mid build, then we would see nuke power plants pop up all over and replace most of the coal burning plants.
The 19% of electricity generated from natural gas and oil should be replaced with coal and nuclear. The freed up natural gas could be used for heating buildings and the oil for gasoline. Additionally,a pipeline could be built to transport Alaskan natural gas to the lower 48 states supplemented with additional natural gas production brought on board from the Rockies. This could free up a significant amount of oil currently used for home heating. Where natural gas is not feasible for heating, the oil heat could be replaced with electricity from coal and nuclear. We could start drilling for oil on the North slope of Alaska. Then we can look on the conservation side. If we were serious we could reduce our imports by 6 million barrels a day leaving up primarily dependent on North American sources. The strategic petroleum reserve should be expanded over time to 1.5 billion barrels enough to to replace one million barrels for four years. We could also look to set up a national supplemental oil production capability of two million barrels a day. This would be subsidized by the government and be capable of pumping oil or converting oil from shale at $70 a barrel. This emergency oil could be dumped on the market at a loss to drive down the market price of oil when necessary.
And the new nuke plants are far more reliable than the older models. They require less maint. They are modular in design so they are easier to build. Some designs don't even require containment domes. Uranium is in great supply and prices have come way down. Does anyone remember the old ConEd commercials in NY. The hot dogs in Shea Stadium were cooked by electricity coming for nuclear power plants. I always thought the non-Nuked dogs in Yankee Stadium were better. So what the hell are we waiting for. More Nukes Now!
And the new nuke plants are far more reliable than the older models. They require less maint. They are modular in design so they are easier to build. Some designs don't even require containment domes. Uranium is in great supply and prices have come way down. Does anyone remember the old ConEd commercials in NY. The hot dogs in Shea Stadium were cooked by electricity coming for nuclear power plants. I always thought the non-Nuked dogs in Yankee Stadium were better. So what the hell are we waiting for. More Nukes Now!