Canada Goes Nuclear

Nicolas Loris / June 17, 2008

Canada is beginning to see nuclear energy as the superior substitute to carbon fuel-based electricity. A number of Canadian environmental activists and government officials are turning to nuclear power and reviving its prestige as the cleanest energy source we can feasibly use. As the Canadian public continues to suffer from rising oil prices, they are not turning to the red-herrings of wind and solar power, but to nuclear energy. The Ontario provincial government is acting on plans to build new nuclear plants. In Canada, the public, the government, and environmental interest groups are converging on a popular consensus that nuclear power is the best way to supply electricity, balancing economic and environmental benefits.

In the United States country, however, anti-nuclear activists and rent-seeking interest groups have had a stranglehold on the policymakers in Congress for the past three decades. Although the tides are beginning to turn in the U.S., Congress has been focused on implementing bad policies while neglecting the good ones. As Heritage scholar Ben Lieberman points out in his analysis, the bill which Congress debated in 2008 was counterproductive and did nothing to expand energy supply, which would ultimately drive down prices.

While liberal politicians bash oil companies and tout the dangers of commercial nuclear, why don’t they take a clue from our northern neighbor and recognize the superiority of nuclear power to carbon fuel-based energy?