Introduction xxvii
In the 1950s and 1960s, nuclear power seemed to offer great hope as a source of cheap, clean energy.
Aside from large volumes of hot water released into adjacent rivers or other bodies of water, there
appeared to be little negative environmental impact. But as the dangers of nuclear accidents became
more apparent and as the risks of storing large quantities of radioactive wastes over long periods of
time became increasingly evident, atomic power slowly lost its luster. Consequently, no completely
new nuclear power plants have been constructed in the United States since the 1970s, although one new
reactor came online at Watts Bar in eastern Tennessee in 1996 and another in 2016. Currently four new
reactors are under construction, and these are all additions to existing plants. While nuclear energy is
a major source of power in many countries, it provides only about 20 percent of U.S. electricity.7
Both water and wind have been used as power sources in America since the colonial period. Today,
about 6 percent of the electricity consumed in the United States comes from major hydroelectric facili-
ties such as Glen Canyon Dam and those operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. However, because
many people are beginning to think that the environmental damage caused by such large dams out-
weighs the benefits, few new large hydroelectric plants are apt to be built and some older ones in need
of costly repairs may eventually be dismantled. Since the 1990s, serious considerations has been given
to removing dams from small rivers across the country, and dozens of dams from Maine to Washington
State have already been breached.
Energy from the sun and wind, which does not create byproduct pollutants (save in the manufacture
of the apparatus for collecting it), is now a fundamental part of the U.S. energy mix. The number of large
wind farms is growing rapidly, with wind currently producing nearly 5 percent of the country’s electricity,
but proposals for these projects have run into opposition from homeowners whose views would be inter-
rupted as well as from environmentalists who are concerned about the danger that wind turbines pose for
birds and bats. Although at present less than 1 percent of the electricity consumed in this country comes
from solar collectors, solar energy production is likely to grow, even without support from the federal
government. Other renewable, non-polluting energy sources that show great potential are geothermal and
wave energy, but currently they account for merely a fraction of a percent of America’s energy.
Biomass—the substance of plants and various kinds of organic waste—is another small but grow-
ing source of energy. However, the conversion of corn, soybeans, and sugarcane into biofuels such as
ethanol and biodiesel has numerous opponents. One of the major objections to the U.S. subsidies for
corn-based ethanol is that by encouraging farmers to replace the production of a food staple for humans
and animals with the production of a fuel source for cars and other vehicles, we are inflating food prices
around the world. Other opponents claim that the corn to ethanol conversion process itself requires too
much energy.
Although environmentalists have called for better public transportation and vehicles that are more
fuel efficient, urban sprawl mandates dependence on the automobile. Over the years, cars have become
more fuel efficient, but the ever-increasing number of cars on America’s, and the world’s, roads counter-
acts the gains in air pollution control achieved through improved fuel efficiency. Furthermore, although
there has been talk about electric cars for a long time and successful hybrids have been on the market for
years, a truly satisfactory alternative to the gasoline engine has yet to be developed.
AIR QUALITY, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND ATMOSPHERIC ISSUES
When fossil fuels are burned to produce energy, carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and other
combustion products are released into the atmosphere. The released nitrogen and sulfur oxides react
with atmospheric ozone and water to form acids, and the presence of these acids in the air results in acid