February 27th, 2007
Dear Readers,
To back up my comments in yesterday's newsletter, here are some clips and quotes from the past decade, indicating Al Gore's pro-nuclear stance and his reluctance to admit it.
Ace Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA
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From 2000 (Congressional Quarterly, April 21, 2000):
[Nevada senatorial candidate John] Ensign . . .has accused Vice President Al Gore--the certain Democratic nominee--of being unclear on the issue of nuclear waste. Gore's campaign has said that the vice president wants the EPA to rule on Yucca's suitability before sending waste to Nevada and that he opposes storing it there temporarily. He has not ruled out using Yucca as a permanent site, said a spokesman from the vice president's office.
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From an article in the LVS, April 26, 2000:
But NEI won't ease up. Next year brings the promise of a new president, which has stirred speculation about how Al Gore and George Bush would handle a nuclear waste bill. Gore, like Clinton, objects to the current bill, but neither he nor Bush has said much beyond that.
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From LVSA April 21, 2000:
Only Green Party candidate Joel Kovel said he outright opposed burying nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. He responded with a simple "no" to the question of whether he supported a high-level waste storage facility at Yucca.
Only Republican Alan Keyes responded with a "yes" to the question posed by the Washington-based Sustainable Energy Coalition.
Vice President Al Gore, who previously has voiced opposition to storing nuclear waste in Nevada, said in the survey that he still doesn't support the plan, at least for now. He said the nuclear waste debate should be "based on science, not politics."
"Until the scientific analysis of the Yucca Mountain site is completed, it is premature to make a determination about its use as a disposal site," Gore said. "For that reason, I have strongly supported the administration's vigorous and successful fight against legislation that would move waste to the Yucca Mountain site before the scientific evaluation is complete."
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LVS, May 15, 2000 (Not sure why it's in CAPS):
`SOUND SCIENCE' THE PHRASE
IT'S UNANIMOUS: THE NUCLEAR WASTE INDUSTRY AGREES WITH BOTH
PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDERS: "SOUND SCIENCE" MUST BE THE FIRST AND
FOREMOST CONSIDERATION WHEN IT COMES TO BUILDING A NUCLEAR WASTE
REPOSITORY.
THAT PHRASE WAS USED BY DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE AND
BUSH.
"SOUND SCIENCE NEEDS TO BE THE BASIS FOR A REPOSITORY
DECISION, WE AGREE ON THAT," A SPOKESMAN FOR THE NUCLEAR ENERGY
INSTITUTE SAID AFTER BEING ASKED TO REACT TO BUSH'S ONE-PARAGRAPH
ISSUE POSITION.
THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY DID NOT RETURN CALLS SEEKING COMMENT ON
WHETHER THE POSITION OF EITHER CANDIDATE WAS PREFERABLE.
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From a pro-Nader Sierra Club document, June 29th, 2000:
Reasons not to vote for Al Gore as compiled by Sierra Club board member Michael Dorsey as a discussion paper.
...
12. Gore failed to keep radioactive materials out of commercial products. The Vice President supported the plan to melt metals from the Oak Ridge nuclear facility and put them into ordinary commerce despite the lack of agreement over national radiation standards for such metal products.
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Birds of a feather: Gore and Bush agree on Yucca Mountain, Idaho State Journal, Sept. 2000:
Republican nominee George W. Bush, seeing his lead in Nevada melting away, has promised Nevada Republicans that he would veto plans to use Yucca Mountain as a temporary storage site for high-level nuclear waste. Bush is now in line with Vice President Al Gore, who made a similar pledge at the Democratic National Convention.
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From the Paducah Sun, October 10th, 2000:
The Committee to Elect Al Gore, formerly known as the U.S. Department of Energy, is throwing a large bone to southern Ohio voters, hoping to convince them that the vice president will save the jobs of workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
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Some may say he has no responsibility to this, but note that the sins of the father have NEVER been undone -- even a little -- by the son. From my Stop Cassini newsletter #155, July 20th, 1999:
In the 50's the American People had to be sold a lie in order for them to embrace the nuclear future that was being offered them. Al Gore' dad was one of the main proponents of that lie, and thousands of others bought into in themselves for whatever reason...
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From a presentation by Karl Grossman at the New School University, January 26, 2002:
The Republican Bush-Cheney posture on nuclear power is super-extreme, but that doesn't mean the Democratic alternative was or is on the diametric other "side." The website of the Nuclear Energy Institute
www.nei.org includes a page of "Endorsements of Nuclear Energy" and among those quoted are Al Gore: "Nuclear power, designed well, regulated properly, cared for meticulously, has a place in the world's energy supply," he is reported to have said.
Gore's running mate as candidate for vice president, Senator Joseph Lieberman, is quoted as saying at a Senate hearing in 1998: "I am a supporter of nuclear energy."
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From Energy and Peak Oil News, April, 2005:
Former Vice President Al Gore, a reputed environmentalist, authored a book called, "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit," published in 1992. Yet on July 25, 1998, Gore visited the Chernobyl Museum in Kiev, Ukraine, and delivered a speech in which he said, "The lesson of Chernobyl is not an indictment of nuclear power as such. Nuclear power, designed well, regulated properly, cared for meticulously, has a place in the world's energy supply."
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Here's a reader comment found at the Huffington Post blog, July 7th, 2006:
Jim Lovelock is an absolute GOD to the environmental/anti-GW bloc...he created the Gaia Hypothesis &is cited by Al Gore for lotsa stuff in his movie.
He too is urging the immediate/massive transition to nuclear power plants.
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And lastly (not that I couldn't go on and on with this!), here's something from a pro-nuclear article in Opinion Journal by William Tucker, July 21st, 2006:
No, it's more than ironic--it's dishonest. In "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore lifts the "seven-wedge" approach to global warming from Robert Socolow, director of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton. Mr. Socolow's main "wedges" are efficiency, conservation, fuel switching, renewables, carbon sequestration, reforestation--and "nuclear fission." Mr. Gore conveniently leaves nuclear out.
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Conclusion: Al Gore is a closet pro-nuker!