In his address to the UN General Assembly last week Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defied Security Council demands that his nation stop its uranium enrichment program, again claiming Iran is pursuing nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
I seriously doubt Iran’s motive here is to reduce its carbon footprint.
And my view is that pursuing new clean-energy options here in the U.S. (yes, including nuclear) should be viewed through the enviro/climate-change prism, but not exclusively. There are a number of other reasons for us to pursue these technologies – among them, freeing us from our foreign fuel addiction. Retired Gen. Chuck Wald makes a great case for clean energy and national security in the video we’re highlighting here on Terra Rossa. It’s a notion picked-up by our fellow conservative bloggers Bill Hobbs and the Evangelical Ecologist, as well as the folks over at Environmental Economics and Blue Sky Mining, to name a few.
Check out the video. Then forward it to your conservative friends.
This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 2:59 pm and is filed under Alternative Energy Technology, International Environmental News, National Security, Oil and Gas . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 6th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Iran is *VERY* serious about moving away from oil and gas for electrical generation, so they can export more.
Here is a 2003 article where Iran is evaluating 243 new hydroelectric dams with 79 under construction.
http://www.payvand.com/news/03/sep/1062.html
The link below contains this quote “effort by Iran to increase hydroelectric power generation capacity by 3 300 MW by the end of its five-year development plan in 2010″
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8957
Iran also just completed their first wind farm, using largely domestic parts due to sanctions.
The facts are clear that Iran is trying HARD to develop alternative power sources, that hydro cannot be enough in a semi-arid land (I doubt that wind would either) and so they have a clear need for nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
The USA ignores their legitimate need to reduce oil & gas fired electricity and points only at the potential military uses.
It is an open question whether Iran’s nuclear power program is dual use (driven by civilian needs with a secondary military role) or strictly civilian. I see no proof either way ATM.
I do note that Iran did not use poison gas against Iraq, despite Iraq using poison gas against Iranian troops (and making mustard or chlorine gas is simple to do). At the time, Iran claimed that would be against their religious principles. Today, Iran claims that developing nuclear weapons would be against their religious principles.
However, given the series of lies by GWB from Iraq’s WMD to Jackson Square in New Orleans, I give cannot give him the benefit of the doubt.
So,
1) I believe that Iran has a need for civilian nuclear power.
2) I am not convinced that Iran does not want an atomic bomb since I would in their shoes (neighbors Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, USA (occupies nations to East & West of Iran so an unfriendly neighbor) all have nuclear weapons) but I also give credibility to their religious claims.
3) Experience has taught me that our current US President cannot be relied upon to tell the truth. Very sad, but true