I want to see green power directly subsidized by the govenrment–and perhaps green power percentage mandates in exchange for the free land (transmission line easements) we already give away to the large corporate power companies. I want EVERYONE to pay for green power, not just a few forward-thinking individuals. If you think about it, it’s almost like being taxed for having good sense!

You’re in Chicago! Your power bill reflects a really neat Chi-town heritage – that of Enrico Fermi and the first sustained nuclear chain reaction. Your power bill also reflects a progressive heritage!

If you look at the history of the nuclear scientists who came to Chicago as refugees from fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, you’ll find the fascinating history of people like Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, Lise Meitner, and Albert Einstein (at Colombia U, not in Chicago). The tie-in with progressive ideas is because so many of the nuclear scientists who came to Chicago and other universities in the U.S. and England were refugees from fascism.

Franklin Roosevelt was President in 1942. Probably the most socially progressive president we’ve had except perhaps John F. Kennedy.

Your lights come on whenever you flip the switch…without releasing health-damaging particulates or acid-rain-causing sulfurr dioxide. In addition, your lights are climate-friendly – very little CO2!

Crank up your favorite music and celebrate Chicago’s heritage and contribution to emissions-free, reliable electricity! Nothing to feel guilty or hesitant about!

I am a mechanical and environmental engineer who has worked at many navy and commercial reactors, Yucca Mountain too. In the US, commercial nuclear power is 100% safe and clean.

I have lived near Chicago and also California. While in California, I designed and built my own solar system. What I learned 20 years ago was that I could not make an honest living selling solar panels. Things have changed in 20 years and I now think it is possible to make an honest living making electricity with solar panels. Looking at Antonio’s web page, maybe he has found a business model for doing it. This is not an endorsement but I would investigate it if I was still living in California.

For Chicago, wind power might be the best renewable. However, I personally would not pay extra for it since it reduces the cost of making electricity with natural gas.

I am quite jealous about the portion of your power supplied by nuclear fission. It takes me back to a fine time in my life when it was almost completely powered by uranium, not only for power, but for water, air, and propulsion. (I was the Engineer Officer on an atomic sub for several years in the 1980s).

A friend of mine just posted an interesting article running some land use numbers that compared nuclear power against wind – I always wonder why people that are concerned about the environment give both solar and wind a pass when it comes to their effects on unspoiled vistas, their incompatibility with trees, and their effects on the local weather patterns.

Enjoy your clean, low impact electricity. The plants are in good hands that have earned more trust than you are giving by operating safely for several decades.

BTW – The PWR’s & BWR’s run by Excelon cannot explode, have not been attacked (just for laughs, try it sometime), and the beauty of nuclear waste is that it makes one particular place extremely nasty, but doesn’t float wherever the wind blows like the emissions from that biomass plant. The long-term repository will be run by the U.S. government, not some greedy capitalists – if only the U.S. Congress will allow it to open.

Cheers.

You can believe me when I say I’m envious of the amount of nuclear you have on your bill, because 1) your bill is lower as as a result, and 2) you are not polluting the atmosphere and killing thousands with particulates.

* Of course Chernobyl did indeed explode, probably twice (steam and hydrogen), although the 10-day fire was the main radioactivity spreader. There are environmentalists who would argue that the Chernobyl disaster was a pretty green event, setting aside an area of country where wildlife can flourish. (Look a little further out and there are those who would approve of population reduction too, although Chernobyl didn’t do such a great job of that).

Those nukes are greenhouse gas misers. Why would you want to pay more to buy electricity produced by migratory bird chopping machines?

http://www.nei.org/documents/States_AZ.pdf

As for Illinois, it generates a greater percentage of its electricity from nuclear energy than any other state.

http://www.nei.org/documents/States_IL.pdf