Something Good in the Gainesville Times

Deal is off base in decrying push toward renewable energy

Rep. Nathan Deal should be called out on his observations to the gathering at the 2009 Regional Environmental and Safety Assembly, reported in The Times, Saturday ("Deal: Energy bills bad news for Southeast").

He whined, "The issue of renewable electricity standards will put the Southeast at a disadvantage because we don't have many renewables."

Unfortunately, they don't consider nuclear in the mix, even though it is noncarbon polluting. The fact is nuclear power plants produce profoundly polluting radioactive waste and are inherently dangerous because of the potential widespread lasting devastation that results from inevitable hardware and human failures.

Deal should apologize for his and his party's chronic dereliction of responsibility to advocate for the welfare of their constituents. The Sun Belt should surely be a major source for solar power generation. Furthermore, the design and manufacturing of other alternative energy hardware does not require a close-by source.

The explanation does not lie in discrimination against the South, but rather in government officials pandering to their nuclear industry patrons, thereby excluding development of other energy sources. Georgia government officials and businesses should years ago have been forward-thinking in encouraging and supporting job producing industries to develop safe and independent sources of energy.

Instead, just last Friday, the Georgia House followed the lead of the Senate and passed a measure allowing Georgia Power to raise electricity rates on its customers in order to finance two new reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta. Consumers will have no alternative but to fund the expensive and risky development. (Kudos to Rep. Carl Rogers, R-Gainesville, for opposing the bill.)

Also, especially provoking locally is the failure of the Georgia delegation to Congress to protect Lake Lanier in the service of providing water to down river nuclear plants.

W. Lorraine Watkins
Dawsonville

It's way past time for Nathan "Let's Make a" Deal to be retired.