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From: rwsh@hound.UUCP (R.STUBBLEFIELD)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Red plot foiled at govt. agency
Message-ID: <1202@hound.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Jun-85 23:31:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: hound.1202
Posted: Tue Jun  4 23:31:25 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Jun-85 04:15:13 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 39

[]
In response to Richard Carnes' defense of government regulation:
>>
>>According to my understanding, libertarians deeply deplore the fact
>>that thalidomide was not allowed to be marketed in the US; they
>>profoundly regret the fact that crib safety standards have interfered
>>with the right of infants to strangle themselves; and they are
>>outraged by government-imposed safety standards for both airlines and
>>nuclear power plants.  Does this antiregulatory stance extend to the
>>prohibition of all workplace safety and health regulation as well?  

Nat Howard says:
>
>As for nuclear power plants, the same government you like for giving us
>OSHA also arbitrarily limits the possible damages of a nuclear accident
>to some artificially low figure.  Why?  Because insurance agencies would
>hardly insure reactors in cities for the amounts of damage they might
>actually cause.  As it is, of course, the government has spoken, and it
>is the government, not the market, which must be blamed for any
>artificially imprudent placement or construction of nuclear power
>plants.
Peter Beckmann says:
"Contrary to widespread misconceptions, liability insurance for nuclear
accidents is fully private with not a cent either contributed or confis-
cated by the government (with the unimportant exception of small reactors
under 100 MW, used mainly at universities and research labs).  Liability
up to $160 million is covered by a pool of private insurance companies, and
any excess over that figure--which has never materialized and is unlikely to
occur in the future--would be taken from a fund which utilities would con-
tribute up to $5 million per licensed reactor or, with the present 92 li-
censed units, up to $460 million, bringing the liability coverage to a total
of $620 million." ACCESS TO ENERGY, May 1985 (Vol.12, no.9) Box 2298, Boulder
CO 80306
I share Nat Howard's loathing of government intervention in economic affairs,
but my study of the facts has led me to conclude that nuclear power has been
hamstrung rather than subsidized by the government.  The fact that some
libertarians are quick to rally to the popular anti-nuclear cause is one
of the things that makes me uneasy about the movement.
Bob Stubblefield  ihnp4!hound!rwsh