Be careful what you wish for... - Granite Grok

Be careful what you wish for…

campfire
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I saw this headline yesterday and couldn’t help but laugh:

Power Watch Declared for Maine for Second Straight Day

Looks like those granolas that wanted the PineTree State nuke-free might be shivering in their beds during these cold nights. According to the story that I found in the Citizen (Laconia, NH),

For the second day in a row, the operator of the region’s power grid has declared a power watch for the state of Maine.

[snip]

Consumers are being asked to reduce their electricity use by shutting off unnecessary lights and electrical appliances and putting off activities such as laundry and dishwashing.

In Baghdad this might be expected, but MAINE? It’s too bad, really. At one time, they had a nuclear power plant all to themselves, which, according to the Wikipedia,

Over its 25 years as Maine’s sole operating nuclear power plant, the power station produced much of Maine’s power.

no nukes

But that was before it was shuttered. While planned with a forty year lifespan, it barely operated past the halfway point. Again from Wikepedia:

Initial opposition to constructing the plant was led by Citizens for Safe Power, from 1967 through 1972; the group failed to stop construction but succeeded in persuading the Nuclear regulatory Commission to impose stricter environmental standards and monitoring. During the 1980s, when nuclear opposition was provoked by the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, two attempts by referendum (1980 and 1982) at closing the plant were defeated. A third referendum in 1987 was triggered by the catastrophic accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Ukraine. The referendums all failed despite gaining more than 40% of the vote. Ultimately the questions raised in the referendums by the Maine Nuclear Referendum Committee, and its allied citizen groups, proved persuasive to policy makers who made the ultimate decision for early closure of the plant.

If and when nuclear power comes back into favor, what do you suppose their chances will be of getting another one of these? Throw another log on the fire…

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