Energy:

Despite the intense media coverage of the strategic defects of the operations of Enron, nothing has been said about its energy game-plan. That plan, described in a letter from Enron, placed exceptional emphasis on renewable energy in the form of "solar, wind and hydroelectric renewables".

Those options are very popular with politicians and ardent environmentalists, but much less so with scientists and engineers. The far more practical plan depends on nuclear power. My own contribution on the policy level was the creation of the international journal, Nuclear Waste Management and Technology, to deal with the problems of high-level nuclear waste, which Congress is now addressing. The journal, launched in l979, has lapsed. It warrants revival.

Biomass (wood), which Enron effectively dismissed, is a global, traditional, staple fuel whose use will certainly outlast the enthusiasms which seduced Enron, and the fossil fuels which have been the staple of the Texas economy. Enron was politically correct but scientifically off base, as political solutions to technical problems often are.

But we can retain our lead if we use our best resource properly - namely, our ability to innovate, innovate, innovate! And we must bring more scientists into policy-making positions in government.

Paid for by Lawrence Cranberg for Senate