President Biden’s Inaugural Climate Move Should Be Saving Nuclear Reactors Slated For Closure
Nuclear plants operating is obvious: they play a critical role in reducing emissions from the electricity sector. Indeed, the three power plants slated for closure produce about the same amount of electricity as all of the solar capacity in California.
The reason to keep those nuclear plants operating is obvious: they play a critical role in reducing emissions from the electricity sector. Indeed, the three power plants slated for closure produce about the same amount of electricity as all of the solar capacity in California. (More on that in a moment.) Furthermore, those reactors are providing thousands of high-paid jobs. They also provide stable, baseload power to the electric grid. And unlike solar and wind energy, they don’t require huge amounts of rural land, nor do they need new high-voltage transmission capacity to accommodate their output.
Under his proposed “Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Standard” Biden has pledged to fully decarbonize the domestic electric grid by 2035. As I explained in these pages last July, achieving that goal in such a short amount of time will be difficult. Achieving it without the massive amount of zero-carbon electricity now being produced by America’s existing fleet of reactors will make that task far more difficult, or maybe impossible.
Let’s look at the numbers. The combined energy output of the three plants slated to be shuttered this year– Indian Point (Unit 3), in New York, and the Dresden and Byron facilities in Illinois – is about 43 terawatt-hours per year.
Stuart Turley is President and CEO of Sandstone Group, a top energy data, and finance consultancy working with companies all throughout the energy value chain. Sandstone helps both small and large-cap energy companies to develop customized applications and manage data workflows/integration throughout the entire business. With experience implementing enterprise networks, supercomputers, and cellular tower solutions, Sandstone has become a trusted source and advisor. He is also the Executive Publisher of www.energynewsbeat.com, the best source for 24/7 energy news coverage, and is the Co-Host of the energy news video and Podcast Energy News Beat. Energy should be used to elevate humanity out of poverty. Let's use all forms of energy with the least impact on the environment while being sustainable without printing money. Stu is also a co-host on the 3 Podcasters Walk into A Bar podcast with David Blackmon, and Rey Trevino.
Stuart is guided by over 30 years of business management experience, having successfully built and help sell multiple small and medium businesses while consulting for numerous Fortune 500 companies. He holds a B.A in Business Administration from Oklahoma State and an MBA from Oklahoma City University.
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