Fred Thompson on nuclear energy

Grist : A look at Fred Thompson’s environmental platform and record:

• Says it’s unclear how or why climate change is happening, but says the federal government should conduct R&D into technologies that could reduce CO2 and take other steps to cut emissions if they won’t harm the economy.
• Calls for boosting “energy security” by increasing domestic supplies, reducing demand for oil and gas, and promoting alternative and renewable energy.
• Supports “clean coal.”
• Supports expansion of nuclear power.
• Wants to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling (and in 2002, voted to do so).
• Opposed ethanol subsidies when he was in the Senate, but now supports them.

Fortune ..."I’ve always been an advocate of nuclear power ... I think we’re used to it in Tennessee ... We’re also mindful of some of the regulatory issues involved and how important it is to keep safety paramount while not having a regulatory maze so impassible that nobody can get through it in a cost-effective manner and build a plant, and that’s kind of what’s happened now.”