Can't the press get anything right?

(Posted by John.)

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood, but this is just idiotic:

MIDDLETOWN, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Four giant cooling towers loom over the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, reminders of the fears and hopes surrounding an industry that may help cut U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

For God's sake. Reuters doesn't even manage to get out of the first sentence before getting the entire story wrong.

Look, the US gets less electricity from oil than it does from burning landfill gas. Oil has basically nothing to do with electrical generation, and electricity has almost nothing to do with transport fuels. Oil and nuclear have about as much in common as fish and fowl. They're two entirely different industries, and it's like saying that the improvement in personal computers is going to lower gasoline costs - there's that little relationship.

There's a tendency to view "energy" issues as a collective whole, and it's just wrong. It's like when Republicans want to talk about the problems funding "Socialsecurityandmedicare" as if the two programs share similar problems. Viewing oil and electricity the same way is similarly dishonest, and it's being used to push bad policy and bad energy choices.