All-electric and hybrid vehicles are presented as a solution to national gasoline and pollution problems, especially in California.
Electric vehicles in California? They don't have enough electric capacity now. Remember the brownouts and outages? They'll need more electricity than ever. Doesn't make sense!
Where does that electricity come from? It's from nearby states that will need to burn ever-more-expensive coal and oil. Or nuclear.
We, as a country, over-reacted to TMI in 1979 by canceling most plans to build more nuclear-power plants. The lead time is bad enough, but the regulatory and legal challenges are daunting enough to discourage future construction of full-size nuclear-powered generating plants.
We should start plans to build small metro-sized nuclear power plants. Small, as in mass-produced, which would cut down the huge design engineering required per plant. Mass production is what American industry has done well in the past, and something we should start once again.
And when we start such an industry, let's not drive it and the jobs overseas! We surely don't need to depend on other countries for our nuclear energy too.
Alan D. Wilcox
Professional Engineer
Williamsport
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom
