[A Ruckus of Dogs]

But the enviromentalists have locked up our dirty coal (remember Clinton making a national reserve or treasure or something of several million acres ?)

Lots of Americans don't want a coal mine in town because they do pollute a lot. This does not make them enviro-wackos. Read up on the mining industry in Montana for an example.

and they stopped nuclear power plant construction,too.

Most Americans dislike nuclear power plants. A couple a years ago they wanted to put one up in my area and almost everyone said NO WAY.

You're missing the big picture if you keep blaming everything on environmental wackos.

[hoosierham]

Well the picture in the short term is we could be a little dirty and independent or clean and dependent!

Then as an independent people we could and would find cleaner ways.

Just as you can hardly buy a house whilst paying exhoribant rent to a landlord but you CAN buy a not-so-nice house and fix it up at your own pace (if the gov't will let you.)

Dependence is not pretty.

[Steelerfan]

All valid points, but a large reason why people are against nuclear power plants is that the environmental nuts have convinced them they are all bombs waiting to go off (not true, and the newer designs are even safer) and that there is nothing to do with waste (also not true and a much smaller problem than the nuts make it out to be). The extremists do influence public opinion by misrepresenting the facts.

[Gunrunner2]

Yeah. . .but nuke power is cleaner and cheaper than other forms of power and it is the enviro-wacko's that have won the nuke debate by false propaganda. . .they duped the American people. So, when it comes to blaming the enviro-wacko nut-cases, I'm all for it when it comes to nuke power.