Senator Bond’s opposition to the Obama cap and trade proposals doesn’t mean he opposes steps to improve the quality of air. But he thinks this nation gave up on one important technology more than 30 years ago.
He tells a civic group in Jefferson City the country needs to reduce its emissions. He acknowledges there are disagreements about how much of global warming is natural and how much is man-made. But Bond says the nation must reduce its greenhouse gasses.
He says one of the answers is increased use of nuclear power. And Bond maintains there is a solution to the problem of nuclear waste. In fact, he says, France has used it for years: reprocessing. Bond says reprocessing will reduce nuclear waste by 95 percent while giving power plants a chance to use the material a second time. Unfortunately, he says, the United States canceled plans to recycle nuclear waste when it canceled the development of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor in 1978.
He says China and India are not interested in joining the United States in cutting greenhouse gasses. Bond says both have hundreds of millions of people living in poverty and will do nothing to limit the generation of energy they need to give those people jobs.
Upload Bond’s speech (12:41 mp3)
