Letter: Nuke dump is enough for state

Thursday, May 3, 2001 | 8:47 a.m.

Before Nevadans rush headlong to fulfill what the Sierra Club believes is our destiny because we are "rated among the top states for its renewable potential ...," we need to ask some serious questions.

All those towers with propellers on top near Palm Springs and on the Tehachapi Mountains may be fascinating to look at as we drive by, but how long will we love them when we have to live with them? Do we long to see the sun setting behind the high-tech windmills of Mt. Potosi? What songs will that inspire?

Do we dream of the endless vistas of mirrors and black panels that spread across the Amargosa Valley or the Ruby Mountains? What paintings and panoramic photography will that create?

Solar energy sounds nice, but won't solar energy cause an ecological disaster when it put tens of thousands of acres of Nevada's fragile desert into permanent shade? Where will the mustangs roam? We're getting the nuke dump. Isn't that contribution enough to America's energy needs? Do we want to live in the midst of energy factory sprawl so that Californians can have abundant energy for their electric cars?

BOB GORE