Reply To: Iconography

[Glenn Millam]

Elling wrote: I would think that FF inherently promotes a libertarian political agenda. Libertarian in the good ole 40 acres and a mule sense.. The GOP would not favour FF because it shorts out big corp. And just utter the word nuclear to your average German or Swedish green liberal..Scandinavians are early adopters of new mobile phone gadgets. Traditionally purists or luddites when it comes to energy, however ripoff oil and electricity prices have forced upon us a better acceptance of the nuclear industry.
I guess Eric is right when he predicts that serious political change must preceed the adoption of FF.

The GOP probably would not favor development of focus fusion, at first. Focus fusion has a lot to offer them, however, and I think they will begin to see it.

First off, take the example of the glass factory in one of my posts above. Focus fusion should bring energy production down to the industrial level; right now it is in the hands of large utilities and government agencies. An industrialist can look at the technology and see where he can cut his costs tremendously by getting off the grid. He will give to the campaigns of pro-business GOP candidates and incumbents, and request that they “consider” eliminating the regulatory roadblocks in the way of him building his own power plants. He will also look at lobbying. Never doubt the power a big donor has over needy politicians in the US; it is our biggest shame, and I think it is tantamount to bribery. But it can also get things done. If enough industries see the potential of in-house power generation, energy companies may not have enough resources to stop it.

Second, alternative energy and nuclear fission are gaining traction amongst GOP conservative thinkers as a way of combatting terrorism. They have finally put three-and-three together in the links between Middle Eastern oil, Western dependence on it, and Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. They have even done something that no administration (even President Clinton’s) has done since Carter, in coming out with an actual energy policy. (One could debate its effectiveness, but its a start.) They know how important it is. But they also know that they have rich oil buddies. The late Ken Lay of Enron was once the GOP chairman. Its going to be hard for them.

I think the worst part for the GOP, assuming the next administration is Republican, and the focus fusion project achieves its goals in the time frame currently given, is explaining why this project, once funded and worked on in the US, had to be rescued by the people of Chile. If achieved, it will be one of the major turning points in history, like the steam engine, powered flight, or the internet. America had it in its hands and it was given away because of lack of vision, not lack of funds. That could be a big issue in a future presidential campaign.