20 years ago President Bill Clinton and Senator John Kerry, currently Secretary of State, satisfied election pledges to voters and killed off nuclear energy in America. They insisted any nuclear power meant nuclear bombs, which was a public relations campaign of anti-science groups like Union of Concerned Scientists and Greenpeace but squarely in defiance of the evidence.
Nuclear power had already been on hiatus and America dramatically increased its use of coal. The resulting increased on CO2 emissions led to escalating concern about global warming but rather than accept their role in greenhouse gases, environmental corporations instead continued to lament affordable energy and demand more bans, taxes and regulations.
For being pro-science during his campaigns, President Obama has been Clinton-esque in his policies. He has gone out of his way to stall Yucca Mountain, even defying court orders, and endorses domestic energy while he comes up with new excuses to ignore science studies on Keystone XL and push it off until someone else is in office. His State of the Union speeches talk about 'all of the above' when it comes to energy but that has meant starting new nuclear projects, and getting the media attention, while starving previous ones, a similar tactic to his handling of NASA, canceling the Constellation program and then announcing a new one with his name on it.
But things may be coming around on the nuclear front, at least we hope, because the Department of Energy is signaling it is willing to bet big. But let's hope this is not the same trope as before, where they undermine an old project to start a new one.
Science won't be out of the woods yet. After big increases for science during the Bush years, President Obama to-date has regarded scientists as in the bag for his party, and that may be true, but it penalizes scientists for their political loyalty.
