Iran's election; and missing the point

[mindstalk]

Iran may have a decades-long democratic past but it's looking bad at the moment. Ahmadinejad had been polling at 40%, but the gov't claims a 60% win. Fraud seems likely given various factors, analogous to Obama winning Arizona or McCain winning Chicago.

* In other news, GOP denounces climate change plan as an energy tax. Half-right: we need a *fossil carbon* tax, to harness market forces in making people use it less. They propose

In the GOP's weekly radio and Internet address, Indiana Rep. Mike Pence said Congress should instead open the way for more domestic oil and natural gas production and ease regulatory barriers for building new nuclear power plants.

Nukes are fine (though "easing regulatory barriers" needs a wary eye), but encouraging more oil and gas production? No, that's the exact opposite of what you need in a climate-change bill. We need to replace production, not expand it.

Comments

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

It's like the ads run by "the people of the oil and gas industry." The ones with that really snotty female spokesperson. Why anyone thinks those ads are improving the oil companies' case with the public are absolutely beyond me.

And my father was a petroleum engineer, blast it.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen broadcast TV for years, and know nothing of these ads. :)

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Iran may have a decades-long democratic past but it's looking bad at the moment.

Oh, just "at the moment?" I don't think Iran's been genuinely democratic since 1953 -- the 1979 revolution merely installed a theocracy in place of a monarchy.

Nukes are fine (though "easing regulatory barriers" needs a wary eye) ...

The current "regulatory barriers" do not allow a company, with the best of work, to rationally project when (or even if) a new nuclear power plant is going to be permitted to begin construction or operation. Furthermore, there is no provision for licensing a design which will then be mass-produced and installed in numerous places: each installation has to be approved separately. This is why the development and deployment of nuclear power in America has stalled so badly since the 1970's.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

That may well be true. Still, deregulation has a lot of bad examples to rise above; the reasonable presumption is to be suspicious.