President Barack Obama, during his speech on the state of the union had challenged all the members from Congress to start focusing on solving the various problems that the nation is facing instead of looking out for political gains in the short run. He also said that the nation with the biggest resources with regard to renewable energy is going to soon be dominating the economy of the world. He also made clear his vision of a world where there were no nuclear weapons. After this he continued by promoting the use of nuclear energy and by doing this he has contradicted his imperatives. You may ask how?

Nuclear energy is of very little help in solving the various problems that the nation faces. The industry of nuclear energy has taken the opportunity, with all the climate related problems happening around, and called itself a sort of nuclear renaissance. And even though nuclear energy has the ability to reduce the emission of carbon it is one of most ineffective approaches to the problem. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Moutain Institute says, “We need to invest judiciously and not indiscriminately if we are to get the best solution for our climate problem. By simply expanding our nuclear power we are not doing so, but we are doing exactly the opposite instead. Obama can be given credit though for increasing the funding with regard to various solar, wind & geothermal research & development. But, China, Japan and South Korea are easily outspending the United States when it comes to the production & expansion of various renewable resources. Lovins feels that China is a world leader with respect to no less than 5 renewable energy technologies, keeping in mind the fact that the United States had invented all of them.

Lastly, the promotion of nuclear energy as well as the reduction of nuclear proliferation are two totally opposite goals. If you do not believe this then you should ask yourself why a country like Iran is pushing so badly for nuclear energy even though they are sitting on a piece of land that could be called a solar gold mine. If a country starts to show interest in other renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, etc. then there is very little reason for that country to pursue nuclear energy anymore. Thus, the President has to be more careful next time and ensure that there are no similar contradicting sentences.

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