A pro-nuke substacker caught an instructive switch in bureaucratic direction.
A law passed by the mixed-party congress in July 2024 (before the election) and signed by Democrat Biden REQUIRED the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stop blocking new construction and start encouraging it. The agency predictably did nothing until Trump’s new head of nuclear policy changed the tone at the top. Now the agency has issued an official new directive, saying that it has decided to follow the DEMOCRAT-APPROVED law.
Moral of the story: Congress and “laws” are irrelevant. Personal authority is everything. Bureaucrats know a thousand ways to ignore written “laws”. They move when sufficient force is applied. Sometimes total deletion is the only appropriate force, but it appears that a convincing display was enough here. It probably helps that the “law” was approved by the bureaucracy’s own party, but the approval wasn’t enough on its own.
FDR recognized this, and placed his own team in all key positions immediately. It appears that Trump is making a few similar moves, undoubtedly to aid Elon’s Universal X Empire.
Motives, like “laws”, aren’t nearly as important as results. In this case the result is absolutely good. Should have happened 50 years ago, or more accurately the government should never have switched away from its original strong backing for nuclear. We’ve lost decades of clean reliable power and overall development because of our persistent lunacy. France, a far more practical country thanks to the Foy Rebellion, never surrendered to Gaia and continued developing nukes.
As with so many other good actions in antitrust and stock market enforcement, the Biden admin FAILED TO ADVERTISE its positive achievements. I try to watch for nuke news but I missed this law entirely. It wasn’t mentioned anywhere in public media.
Polistra's Mill 