Hilton Head Monthly Magazine

Monthly takes a look at some alternatives.

One of the most critical, and most hotly debated sub-topics of the broader “green” discussion is the subject of renewable and sustainable energy sources.

An abundance of clean and efficient electricity generation and transportation fuel is critical not only to a perpetually vital ecology, but to our country’s economic viability and national security.

Unfortunately, the issue’s environmental and economic/security aspects are, by and large, in conflict when they should be addressed congruously.

From the environmentalists’ point of view, we should, as a society, aspire to completely sever ourselves from our reliance upon the so-called “non-renewable” fuels such as crude oil, natural gas and coal.

However, environmental concerns have curbed domestic oil exploration and production and nuclear energy development, leaving the nation still dependent on imported oil.

The economic impact of such shortsighted policies hit the American consumer in 2008 as gasoline prices soared to more than $4 per gallon. Meanwhile, the national security danger posed by reliance on oil from unfriendly nations is self-evident.

“National security does not include exporting over half-a-trillion dollars a year for the oil that drives a good part of our economy,” said the Nuclear Energy Institute’s (NEI) president and chief executive officer, Adm. Frank L. (Skip) Bowman (USN, Retired). “And it does not include allowing ourselves to be vulnerable to people who do not accept our democratic principles.”

Efforts have been under way for years to develop other means of generating energy, but none is at a point of viability that would permit us to merely flip a switch and totally convert from “fossil fuels” to these new resources.

These alternative sources are years – probably decades – away from effectively eliminating the need for oil. While aggressively pursuing these new technologies, we have keep making the best use of what we have now as if there were no alternative.

One alternative to fossil fuels that has been online for years, but for which expanded use has been sorely neglected, is nuclear energy. The NEI (nei.org) states that presently 104 nuclear power plants operate in 31 states, providing 19 percent of the nation’s electricity; they supply nearly 75 percent of the electricity that comes from carbon-free electricity sources.

However, according to a 2003 Congressional Research Service report, no nuclear plants have been ordered since 1978 and more than 100 reactors have been canceled, including all ordered after 1973.

It appears, though, that nuclear power is back in favor. Over the past year, 16 applications for 25 possible new reactors that would be built over the next 15 to 20 years have been filed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, reports the NEI.

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama both voiced support for nuclear energy during a recent campaign debate in Nashville, Tenn.

“The support for nuclear energy expressed by Senators McCain and Obama reflects the increasing recognition that nuclear energy is part of our nation’s energy backbone,” said Bowman. Here is a brief roundup of some other alternative energy sources with varying degrees of future potential: