The great irony, of course, is that the environmentalists, concerned with our empty "clean, green" and "100 per cent pure" boasts, would throw up their hands in horror if anyone were to suggest that New Zealand adopt the cleanest, safest and cheapest generation available in the world today - nuclear power plants.
But we have made such a thing of our nuclear-free (or rather, anti-nuclear) stance for so long now that it seems to have become part of our national psyche.
Just how long the nuclear Luddites will hold sway remains to be seen, but in the meantime it's time someone woke up to the fact that, without an adequate and reliable supply of electricity, real progress in this country is doomed.
