For a region to prosper in an increasingly competitive and international economy, it must have all of the following:

•                  Educated and inexpensive workforce

•                  Inexpensive energy

•                  Inexpensive land and water

A region that possesses all of these attributes can prosper and dominate its competitors. For example, Michigan leads the automotive industry, but its labor costs remained too high, and places like Tennessee and Japan took a significant fraction of the jobs and factories. California’s Silicon Valley started the semiconductor industry, but due to expensive operating costs, has lost virtually all manufacturing to other states and to countries like Korea and Taiwan.

I believe that energy is the next economic battlefield, and the regions and countries that make the right choices will get the new companies and factories with good-paying jobs. Many people incorrectly think that the world is running out of energy, which pushes them to try and limit the amount of energy used through regulations and taxes.  In reality, energy at the present rate of usage is available for hundreds of years using existing technology with costs comparable to today. Those sources of energy are fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) and nuclear energy. Yes, oil will begin to run out in our lifetime, but the other fossil fuels and nuclear offer a replacement at similar costs.

Energy is used for much more than automotive fuel and electricity; it is used to run factories, heat and cool buildings, and make materials like plastics and cement. The amount of energy used worldwide is truly mind boggling. The majority of that energy comes from fossil fuel, followed by nuclear and then at a much smaller level solar (bio-fuel and photovoltaic), wind and hydro.

For the foreseeable future, the majority of the world’s energy will continue to come from fossil fuels and nuclear. This is based on economics and the vast quantity of energy required. Solar and wind energy cost more to generate, and even if their costs become competitive in the future (without tax incentives), they will only be able to replace a small fraction of the world’s huge and growing energy usage.

Good intentions that force a switch to solar and wind can backfire and destroy an economy if the competition does not have the same restrictions that force them to use a more expensive source of energy.  Again, the jobs and factories will go where there is inexpensive manpower and energy. Tax rebates and incentives to encourage solar and wind are paid for with higher electric rates and fees, which makes it more expensive to do business in that region.

Nuclear energy has supplied the United States with over 20 percent of its electricity for over 30 years.  There are adequate reserves of uranium and thorium for hundreds of years. Also, the spent fuel can be safely stored and reprocessed to make additional fuel. The small amount of radioactive waste left over can be safely stored or converted to stable atoms using a particle accelerator beam. In the very long run of hundreds of years, when uranium and thorium begin to run out, we can create energy the same way the sun does via fusion, which truly is an unlimited energy source.

If the scientists are right about global warming and we have to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, then the only options are to reduce our use of energy or build more nuclear power plants. Worldwide energy usage continues to grow as the developing world tries to catch up and live a lifestyle similar to ours. Therefore, the only real option to reduce the use of fossil fuels globally is nuclear.  China is building coal and nuclear power plants as fast as they can. They already use more fossil fuels and soon will generate more nuclear energy than the United States.

Michigan is well positioned for international competition, but changes are required. To remain competitive the state should build more coal and nuclear power plants, and be a net supplier of energy. This will give our citizens and companies the lowest cost energy and position us for growth. The coal power plants would use the latest high-efficiency technology and could be replaced by nuclear at the end of their lifetimes. The use of renewable energy should continue to be encouraged as long as it does not increase our cost of doing business.

		Terry Grimm received his BS and PhD in nuclear engineering from Purdue University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively. He is the founder and president of Niowave, Inc., a Lansing-based, high-tech R&D company specializing in superconducting particle accelerators for research, defense, medical and industrial applications.