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Forget the tax. The government will just waste that building glass covered rain forests in Iowa. Require the company to provide the recycle service themselves. No reason they couldn't contract it out to the garbage companies, but it would make them think twice about the materials used and the packaging they choose.

Yeah, honestly this isn't really that sleezy.

Texas Instruments did the same thing to the state of Texas less then a year ago. Except that instead of threatening to close a plant, it "convinced" Texas to give it $135M to increase the budget of the University of Texas at Dallas significantly. UTD is getting a new research facility out of the deal.

Actually one of the coolest uses of blackmail ever, IMHO. (And not just because UTD is my alma mater, either.)

You mean like the dioxins produced by biomass burning? One of the so-called green renewables? Please give me a break.

I didn't say there was zero emission of radioactivity. Just that it is negligible compared to what exists in nature, during normal operations.

The nuclear industry files their own paperwork on how much radiation they are emitting to the atmosphere and to the water effluent -- the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn't monitor it. Just because you can't see, smell or detect it with any human senses, the pollution from nuclear power plants is still there.

I quote from this NRC page:

The NRC requires licensees to report plant discharges and results of environmental monitoring around their plants to ensure that potential impacts are detected and reviewed. Licensees must also participate in an interlaboratory comparison program which provides an independent check of the accuracy and precision of environmental measurements. In annual reports, licensees identify the amount of liquid and airborne radioactive effluents discharged from plants and the associated doses. Licensees also must report environmental radioactivity levels around their plants annually. These reports, available to the public, cover sampling from TLDs (thermoluminescent dosimeters); airborne radioiodine and particulate samplers; samples of surface, groundwater, and drinking water and downstream shoreline sediment from existing or potential recreational facilities; and samples of ingestion sources such as milk, fish, invertebrates, and broad leaf vegetation.
The NRC conducts periodic onsite inspections of each licensee's effluent and environmental monitoring programs to ensure compliance with NRC requirements. The NRC documents licensee effluent releases and the results of their environmental monitoring and assessment effort in inspection reports that are available to the public.

Regarding U-238 tailings, the U-238 would still exist at the mine even if it wasn't mined from it in the first place.

In 2002, the Paducah uranium enrichment plant in Kentucky and the Piketon uranium enrichment plant in Ohio emitted 91% of the nation's reported CFC-114 emissions, a potent greenhouse gas and an ozone depleter. As a greenhouse gas, CFC-114 is 9,800 times more potent than C02.

Don't use chemical separation processes (gaseous diffusion) then. Mechanical processes (centrifuges) work just fine for producing fuel. Guess what: Piketon is going to use centrifuges in the future.

Half of our federal budget is spent on the military (~$935 billion/year). If half of that were spent on clean energy research tremendous technological breakthroughs would be made.

And in the meantime, I guess we are supposed to freeze in the cold?

A large part of the problem with solar and wind is that it isn't being mass produced. Mass production would significantly bring the costs down.

Not really. Not to mention nuclear power generators are even less mass produced and yet they manage to be less expensive. Mass production can produce major cost reductions, but not infinite cost reductions. Sometimes a substantive change in the technological base, or just plain dismissal of what will not work properly is required. Solar cells for one have had massive investments since the 1970s and they still do not achieve net positive energy. Nuclear fusion power has had massive investments since the 1950s and it still has not achieved net positive energy either. Quick technological development will not happen just because you throw money at it, despite it being helpful most of the time. Read The Mythical Man-Month for more details.

The nuclear industry has been given its chance and it has failed miserably.

Cheap

Clarke, who spoke via a satellite link from his home in Sri Lanka, also recalled his earlier remark about the elevator reaching fruition "about 50 years after everybody quits laughing."
He updated that prediction in Santa Fe.
"It will be built about 10 years after everybody stops laughing," Clarke said. "And they've stopped laughing."
http://www.conway.com/ssinsider/snapshot/sf031201. htm

So, if I'm correct, all of the links to the west of this map are either completed or funded...

As most of this is simply land routes, when are we gonna start the Siberia-Alaska route???

I know there's more to be considered...the extreme cold is one...the other major problem is that the area under consideration is geologically active. Not good for a tunnel...the other problem is that a portion of the "best route" is a protected wild life reserve.

The only problem is that this (like free trade zones) will not be good for the US economy...

you live in a fly-in community. Where people have aircraft hangars as a part of their houses, and a 3500 ft runway is their door to the world.