In what appears to be a last ditch effort to appeal to Iowa voters, John McCain has changed his public stance on ethanol. Up until now the Arizona senator and Republican Presidential candidate had a been a vocal opponent of providing Federal subsidies to the corn based fuel. However in a speech at the University of Northern Iowa yesterday, McCain told the crowd, “We’ll invest in all energy alternatives: nuclear, wind, tide, solar, ethanol, biofuels.” McCain’s Vice Presidential running-mate Sarah Palin has also gotten in on the pander bear act, telling an audience during an Iowa speech, “harnessing alternative sources like the wind, and the solar and the biomass and the geothermal and the ethanol.”

This flip flop over “the ethanol”, as Governor Palin puts it, illustrates to me at least exactly what is wrong with McCain campaign these days. Like many, in the past I had admired the principled stances John McCain had taken, often against his own party to stand up for what he thought was right. But unfortunately those days are long gone for the Arizona Senator.

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Remember Yucca Mountain?  The place in Nevada where the government decided it would be a good place to put all our nuclear waste, and then seal it up forever and ever?  And how it was going to cost $58 billion?  Well, you may not remember that last one, specifically, but that’s the part that’s moot anyway.   A new estimate released Tuesday by the administration now has costs pegged at over $90 billion to get the site open and operational.   The Associated Press reports,

Ward Sproat, the Energy Department official in charge of managing the controversial Yucca Mountain repository project in Nevada, disclosed the new number to reporters after a congressional hearing Tuesday.   The estimate includes $9 billion already spent and covers about 100 years of operation until the dump, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is sealed up forever.   Some of the increase is due to inflation, Sproat said. Also Energy Department officials now expect the dump will hold more radioactive waste than the 77,000 tons initially approved by Congress.

$90 billion of money, my sources tell me.

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Nuclear weapons. Who’s got them, and how many do they have? Are those numbers increasing or decreasing? Oh, and what would happen if one were dropped on the Empire State Building?  Sensational?  Maybe a little, but  Good Magazine certainly puts nuclear proliferation into perspective with this flashy video featuring RATATAT’s “Gettysburg.”

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France has signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to establish a French military base in Abu Dhabi of up to 500 permanent military personnel. In exchange, France has agreed to assist the UAE in developing “peaceful nuclear energy.” This is the most recent agreement regarding nuclear energy in a series of deals between France and other Arab countries, and the second agreement of its kind in the Gulf - the first is with the United States. The US currently has several army, navy and air force bases located in the Arabian peninsula.Beyondnuclear.org is an organization that aims to educate the public about the links between nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Learn more about sustainable energy on their website and take action: