The argument given back in the day was “energy independence”.

The options (simply put) were 1) give money to shady middle eastern dictators 2) drill in ANWAR or 3) innovate in domestic production (fracking).

Renewables were still not up to par and nuclear was not seriously considered because the carbon thing was still an afterthought.

I’m not condoning this shit, I’m just explaining the state of play as I remember it.