Steve Clemons has an interesting blog post about Japanese energy fears: Japan Heading for Energy Death Spiral?.
I mention this not to endorse the somewhat pro-nuclear drift of the item, because I’m not at all sold on that, not one little bit. But I think it’s an interesting look at what at least one segment of the Japanese political class is worrying about: that “a total rejection of nuclear energy will send Japan over a cliff as deindustrialization is triggered by energy shocks.”
And you get the idea they are really worried. It begins:
Nobuo Tanaka’s hair is on fire. The immediate past executive director of the International Energy Agency is on a mission attempting to alert officials in the United States, Japan, Europe, China and elsewhere that post-Fukushima Japan may be approaching an energy death spiral.
And it’s not just the Japanese worrying:
Tanaka told me that one high-ranking Chinese official recently approached him asking if and when Japan would turn its nuclear reactors back on — as Japan’s massive energy needs now were disrupting supply patterns and costs and could affect China’s energy investment picture if Japan’s needs were to become structurally permanent.
[Updated to add a link to “not one little bit”.]
