To reduce poverty – statewide, nationally and internationally – we must produce more energy. Embracing safe, modern, small-scale nuclear power could feed children and save countless lives around the globe.

“First, we need to address ‘energy poverty’ if we want to end poverty,” says an article by former World Bank managing director and COO Sri Mulyani Indrawati, India’s minister of finance.

That means the developed world should embrace all-of-the-above energy portfolios consisting of oil, gas, wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower and nuclear. All forms of energy must be used to maximum efficiency. Anything we produce and do not use can be used in regions desperate for energy.

“The International Energy Association says that in high-income countries, energy efficiency is now the largest source of energy. Because energy saved is energy that can be used elsewhere,” Indrawati says.

By now, everyone knows the war on oil and natural gas has imposed hardship on middle-and low-income households right here in Colorado. At a recent meeting of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, nearly 40 people testified about the hardships created by utility bills that have doubled, tripled and quadrupled in recent months.

Predictably, Colorado’s overregulation of oil and gas production has led to scarcity and the soaring prices that always result from demand outpacing supply. The rising costs – a mere inconvenience to the wealthy – lead to empty cupboards, cold homes and evictions.

In underdeveloped countries, the war on traditional fuels by high-income Americans causes misery and death.

“Around 1 in 7, or 1.1 billion people, don’t have access to electricity, and almost 3 billion still cook with polluting fuels like kerosene, wood, charcoal, and dung,” Indrawati says.

Never forget her words: “Energy saved is energy that can be used elsewhere.”

That gives wealthy Americans a moral obligation to produce all forms of energy, use what they need with maximum efficiency and trade the rest on the world market. Every time we shut down a fracking rig, or refuse to license one, we add to the burdens of the poor – domestically and overseas – who need clean, affordable energy.

Our race toward solar and wind power would be a move in the right direction if we did so without simultaneously canceling traditional energy. Every electron generated by the sun could lower the cost of natural gas if we would think outside ourselves and stop obstructing fracking.

Likewise, a transition to zero-emission, efficient nuclear power would free up conventional resources to “be used elsewhere.” One pellet of naturally occurring uranium, 100 times more abundant than gold, can produce as much energy as 1,764 pounds of coal.

House Bill 23-1080 would move us in the right direction, by requiring “a feasibility study for the use of small modular nuclear reactors as a source of carbon-free energy.”

The bill will go to the House Energy and Environment committee, which should pass it along to the full chamber. Democrats control the committee by an 8-3 majority. Democrats have a long tradition of caring about the poor and should not abandon it.

“Last September, the Department of Energy released a study extolling the benefits of replacing the nation’s operational and recently retired coal plants with advanced reactors,” says Jake Fogleman of the Colorado-based Independence Institute, a free-market think tank.

Wind and solar offer great promise but have limitations. No matter how much technology advances, the sun won’t always shine, and wind won’t always blow. To date, battery storage of solar and wind power remains replete with concerns. Precious metals required for batteries require enormous amounts of water, are mined in arid regions by child slaves and create seemingly intractable environmental problems.

“The reuse of coal infrastructure for advanced nuclear reactors could also reduce costs for developing new nuclear technology, saving from 15% to 35% in construction costs. Coal-to-nuclear transitions could save millions of dollars by reusing the coal plant’s electrical equipment (e.g., transmission lines, switchyards), cooling ponds or towers, and civil infrastructure such as roads and office buildings,” the federal DOE report says.

Sadly, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and the Boulder County commissioners – liberal organizations ostensibly committed to social justice – oppose the bill and hope to kill it in committee. They don’t want a study that might justify fission as a safe modern source of emissions-free energy.

Much of the world lacks the luxury of picking and choosing fashionable sources of power. For a lack of clean natural gas, they burn kerosene, wood, charcoal and dung and are killed prematurely by the fumes. Energy is fungible. What natural gas we don’t use here can be used elsewhere. To reduce poverty, we must harness the energy nature provides – including that which comes from natural uranium.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board