Nuclear energy could be making a comeback thanks to … Democrats? Several candidates vying for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020 are promoting or have shown openness to expanding “next-generation” nuclear power as part of the arsenal of options to aggressively address the effects of climate change. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. are backing expansion of modern nuclear energy that would have to meet tougher safety standards. Several other White House candidates, including former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have signaled they are open to the idea of nuclear power but have not pushed it as part of their agendas. Even the Green New Deal, New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s sweeping social justice proposal to combat climate change, doesn’t rule out nuclear power expansion despite a draft recommendation initially calling for the decommissioning of all of the nation’s nuclear reactors within a decade.
USA Today 30th April 2019 read more »
There is a deafening silence surrounding nuclear energy. Yet, if you are to believe the current climate alarmism on display, the world’s future is hanging by a thread. Indeed, the forceful climate marches in London last week, the Greta Thunberg-ization of the world’s youth, and David Attenborough’s new Netflix documentary are all symptoms of a growing call to arms. According to them, climate change is real and impending, and, in young Greta’s words, they “want you to panic.” The situation appears dire. Yet, assuming it is, there seems to be a gap in reasoning. Politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are calling for a “Green New Deal,” which would seek to remove America’s carbon footprint by 2030 by “upgrading” every single one of the 136 million houses in America, completely overhauling the nation’s transport infrastructure (both public and private), and somehow simultaneously guaranteeing universal health care, access to healthy food, and economic security—without any consideration of cost. In other words, a complete pie-in-the-sky scheme that is more concerned with virtue-signaling than with pragmatic reality. But if these people truly care about the environment and the damage being caused by climate change, why is no one talking about nuclear?
Capx 30th April 2019 read more »
Private companies are proposing solutions to store the nation’s nuclear waste. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering one storage site in New Mexico’s desert. Nearly 100,000 tons of nuclear waste are piling up around the country. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The federal government decided decades ago that it made sense to consolidate the waste at one permanent location, but no place seems to want it. So now nuclear regulators are considering proposals for temporary storage. NPR’s Nathan Rott checked out one such site in southeast New Mexico.
NPR 30th April 2019 read more »
April 2019 looks set to have been a momentous month for the US energy industry, with the renewable sector projected to generate more electricity than coal for the first time ever. The prediction was made earlier this week by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), which hailed the shift as the beginning of a “tipping point” which will see “renewable output begin outpacing coal more and more frequently.”
Business Green 1st May 2019 read more »
