The face of responsible energy policy.

Right now, oil, natural gas and coal together account for about 80% of energy consumption in the United States. That’s going to change in the near future though, because natural gas and oil are becoming more scarce and therefore more expensive, and while we seem to have plenty of coal left, its use wreaks havoc on the environment and is extremely dangerous to produce.

Americans are going to need new sources of energy if we plan to continue having a civilization.

But what are the options?

Hydrogen is only a way to store energy, not produce it, so the promised hydrogen economy solves nothing on its own.

Ethanol seems fabulous, but as the skyrocketing price of food illustrates, there’s not enough arable farmland in the world to both power our cities and feed our people. Oops.

Hydropower is pretty much maxed out. We may be able to get something from geothermal, but we can’t count on it.

The so-called Green sources, solar and wind, offer tremendous long term potential, but for the time being they’re not energy efficient enough to supply all our needs. It costs too much to build and maintain solar and wind facilities relative to the trickle of power produced by them. The energy efficiency just isn’t there yet. Hopefully we will be able to improve those technologies and make them more efficient in the future, but for the time being we need a stop gap.

If we want to reduce our fossil fuel consumption, there’s really only one viable option in today’s economy: Nuclear. It’s both safer and cleaner than coal, and for the time being it’s much more energy efficient than solar or wind. It’s good news then, that both Maryland and Virginia are considering new nuclear power plants, and that public opposition to them has been sparse.

Ultimately a totally sustainable solar and wind energy economy should be our goal, but until we can get there nuclear is our best, cleanest and safest option. Good on Maryland and Virginia for responsible governing, and good on Marylanders and Virginians for getting past the knee-jerk reactionism that has kept the United States dependent on fossil fuels for far too long.