Delhi Pickle

When critics of Iran's nuclear program scoff at Tehran's claim that it needs the energy, the scoffing is justified. But it's more than a little curious when those same critics switch modes into supporters of the nuclear technology sharing agreement between Washington and New Delhi.

Claims that the Indo-US deal will encourage the growth of India's nuclear power sector and thus reduce Indian carbon emissions and relax global competition for oil are just as ridiculous as the claims that Iran needs nuclear power for energy security. As Leonard Weiss points out in the new issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in 2005 India produced no more than one percent of its electricity from oil. If the deal effects anything in India, Weiss argues, it will be coal use, and even that only marginally.

The full article, which should be distributed to every member of Congress, is here.

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