The Moral Equivalent of War
The cover of Barry Commoner's 1979 work The Politics of Energy summarizes the work's argument as Why President Carter's Energy Plan is
And what we should be doing instead. For those without the grey hair, in October 19-21,1973, a total ban on oil exports to the Unites States was imposed by the Arab oil-producing nations after the outbreak of the Fourth (Yom Kippur) Arab-Israeli War. In December 1973 then-President (elected) Richard Nixon announced stand-by gasoline rationing, in addition to the then-current Sunday-closures (blue laws for automobilists) in effect. In January Nixon signed bill limiting speeds on U.S. freeways to 55 mph. The Arab oil boycott ended on March 16, 1974. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, after the Watergate (domestic spying targeting the DNC) hearings in the Senate resulted in charges of "high crimes and misdemeanors" in a bill of impeachment brought by the House Judiciary Committee.
On April 18th, 1977, then-President (elected) Jimmy Carter presented his National Energy Plan. He warned that the country was "running out of gas and oil," so that forced to depend increasingly on oil imports, "we will live in fear of embargoes" that would threaten "an economic, social and political crisis." He called for a campaign to solve the energy crisis that would amount to the "moral equivalent of war."
Now that the US is neck deep in its 3rd Gulf War (the 1st being the proxied Iran-Iraq War with George HW Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and so many happy others working happily with the Iraqi Baath political and military leaderships that George W Bush is working so happily to hang, with or without a legally constituted court hearing the cases), we know a lot about the immoral reality of war. But do we know as much as "we" did in the late 70's and early 80's, when we got arrested by the thousands at Seabrook and Diablo Canyon, and ended the easy access of the Nuclear Nutmen to private finance capital and public assumption of risk.
Everyone should be clear on the concept that prior to "Hostage Crisis", the US was assisting government of Iran to construct nuclear facilities, even though the Pahlavi Regime was at least as regionally dangerous as its successor, the Islamic Republic. Everyone should also be clear on the concept that the US assisted Israel obtain its initial stock of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium (Pu) fissiles and construct its nuclear facilities, and sat on its hands while Pakistan, and India, fabricated their stocks of HEU and Pu fissiles and weaponized those inventories.
The "red line" is wicked recent, and wicked specific. Its another George Bush and Tony Blair theatrical production. It exists in a different international law universe than North Korea.
But the real problem isn't LEU, or even HEU, in Iran. It isn't weaponized HEU and Pu in Israel, weaponized HEU in Pakistan, weaponized HEU in India. The real problem is LEU in the US. George Bush, like Jimmy Carter before him, has embarked on a sales campaign for LEU consumers. For Bechtel and Westinghouse Electric and ..., which is a wicked far cry from conservation, cleaning up coal, going after greenhouse gas emissions, conversion, and wind and solar. The KWh price of wind is pretty close to competitive with steam.
Nuclear Power? No Thanks!
John Stewart worked some of the Carter-to-Bush material in his show of 2/21. Unfortunately he stopped at the low hanging fruit and didn't go for the glowing gold.