EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVE activists are now embracing it as part of the solution to the climate crisis.
Political scientist Bjorn Lomborg describes the prevailing consensus on what to do about climate change as“ climate panic,” and he warns that if we continue to treat climate change as an apocalyptic, existential threat to humanity, we will waste hundreds of trillions of dollars annually with little resulting climate improvement. Worse yet, he argues that“ choosing climate policies over growth policies doesn’ t just do nothing. It means more people die avoidable deaths.” According to Lomborg, climate change is a problem that needs to be addressed, but it is not the most important problem we face today.
Economic booms and busts are nothing new to western communities that depend on extractive industries. However, those booms and busts are exacerbated when presidential executive orders swing from apocalyptic climate policies to“ drill baby drill” climate change hoax positions under different administrations. This is an area where the US Congress needs to step up and draft bipartisan laws that set sensible long-term climate policies that are less susceptible to presidential executive orders. A cost effective, lifesaving, climate-improving approach would also spare energy-producing towns such as Kemmerer from the extremes of boomand-bust economic cycles.
The TerraPower Natrium project near Kemmerer is just the tip of the nuclear energy iceberg. Other companies are developing innovative SMRs that will soon be entering the construction phase. Decommissioned nuclear facilities at Three Mile Island are being recommissioned to provide energy for Microsoft’ s AI initiatives. The US Department of Energy is working to speed up the approval process for new nuclear power plants. Yet in our mad dash toward an AI-dominated world powered by nuclear energy, one can’ t help but wonder: What could possibly go wrong?
Brian Grinder is a professor at Eastern Washington University and a member of Financial History’ s editorial board. Dr. Dan Cooper is the president of Active Learning Technologies.
Notes
1. Those familiar with the Periodic Table of Elements will recognize Natrium( Na) as the designation for sodium. The TerraPower plant will be sodium-cooled instead of water-cooled.
Rendering of the TerraPower Natrium plant.
View of downtown Kemmerer from Saphire Street.
2. Pacificorp is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.
3. The plant is currently powered by natural gas instead of coal.
4. The Greenpeace position on nuclear energy is available at www. greenpeace. org / usa / climate / issues / nuclear.
TerraPower Dustin Bleizeffer / WyoFile www. MoAF. org | Summer 2025 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 9