ENERGY
Brian Holmes
Where Will Our Power Come From? The new Democratic Party transforms the material practices that generate power in society.
This map presents DOE's Shadow Energy Plan, built on existing social market trends. Coal power, the single largest source of CO2 emissions, is allowed to rapidly disappear. Redevelopment of affected communities is guaranteed by the Coal Severance Tax, already in place in all but three coal-producing states. Nuclear plants, clean until they leak, are analyzed for imminent risks, with immediate retirement of antiquated units. Funds liberated from three redundant missile sites are used to jump-start alternative energy research. DOE's rejuvenated fleet of National Laboratories fulfills a scientist's dream: creating technologies for employment, solidarity and well-being. Sandia Labs in Arizona leads the safe development of geothermal potential. Lawrence Livermore in California, the Mecca of Missiles, converts to electric grid and storage research, in close collaboration with Tesla Industries. Idaho National Laboratory monitors methane releases from natural gas, the "bridge fuel" that could fry us all in a Gaian greenhouse. Argonne and Fermilab in Illinois turn urgently to the civilian reactor waste piling up in a nearby town called Dresden. But the big excitement is at Oak Ridge in Tennessee, which was once the Manhattan Project's "secret city." After Trump's disgrace, the lab doors open to a massive influx of scientists, engineers, industrialists and job-seekers. At stake is a windmill and solar panel factory to fuel the next American economy. The mega-factory is located in the former Y-12 Security Complex, recovered from the nuclear lobby's ghoulish weapons modernization program.
Democracy comes to the USA when the Department of Energy, that old Cold War monster, turns over a new leaf. The new Democratic Party finally gets it. The ultimate resources of the Shadow Energy Plan are the sun, the wind, the stars and the open minds of difference-loving people. Solar energy, like human ingenuity, is too widespread to be pinned down on anyone's map, and it's too free. Where else would our power come from?