In re: to this, the always-on-the-ball Victor Joecks at NPRI dropped us a comment with a link to a 2003 National Review story about David Keene, the ACU, and political advocacy groups trying to moonlight as lobbyists. (See here for my earlier post on the current ACU dust-up due to a leaked letter from FedEx.)
It is a sobering piece, and has me thinking about whether people and/or organizations can “do” both effective issues advocacy and paid lobbying while still maintaining philosophical-political integrity.
I suppose it is possible, but it seems to me they are best kept separate and that people ought to make a choice. The temptation to bend and accept lobby money on a “lesser” issue while (rationalizing that) you are still right on all the “core” issues can be great and should not be underestimated. As is often said at round-table meetings where political purity is challenged by the need for operating cash, “You can’t change the world if you can’t pay the rent.”
Unfortunately, once one accepts even a little money for not-quite pure reasons, one has begun to compromise, which makes it that much more likely that the next time a trade-off presents itself, one will do it again. And again.
The next thing you know, you end up like David Keene and the ACU: wealthy, powerful, and part of the problem with politics and public policy debates in this country. You no longer consistently stand on principle, and everything is for sale.
God forbid I ever find myself there.
We must resist the alluring song of those enchanting twin sirens, Money and Power, or in the end suffer our good ship to veer off course or be smashed to pieces on the rocks. The siren song is beautiful; but its end is always death.
Tags: activism, ACU, compromise, David Keene, lobbying, money, pay for play, Politics, power
This paper is the best, most concise argument for nuclear power I’ve read yet. If you are against or on the fence on nuclear energy, you should read it and consider the facts. If you are already in favor, you’ll be delighted and probably learn a few things.
Be assured, this is not some partisan policy paper. It’s full of hard data and as such is very compelling. It has been entered into the Congressional Record twice (once during Senate testimony for the budget for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, once during a House hearing on environmental benefits of nuclear power).
The paper states that nuclear waste disposal “is a political problem in the United States because of widespread fear disproportionate to the reality of risk” and contends and concludes that nuclear power is in fact “environmentally safe, practical, and affordable.”
It includes facts and citations from the British Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Internationl Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Energy Council, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Geological Survey, MIT, the Harvard School of Public Health, Houston’s Institute for Energy Research, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
One of the authors, Dr. Denis Beller, recently completed a sabbatical from Los Alamos National Laboratory to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he coordinated university participation for UNLV’s Transmutation Research Program for reducing, reusing, and recycling spent nuclear fuel. Beller is now a Research Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UNLV and a Visiting Research Professor at Idaho State University.
The other author, Richard Rhodes, is a journalist, historian and author. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986), and most recently penned Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race (2007). Rhodes has been awarded grants from the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He is an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and frequently gives lectures and talks, including testifying before the U.S. Senate on nuclear energy.
Tags: Congress, data, Denis Beller, energy, House, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NRC, nuclear, power, Richard Rhodes, Senate, the need for nuclear energy, UNLV, waste disposal
