{"id":328461,"date":"2024-05-13T07:48:36","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T05:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=328461"},"modified":"2024-05-13T07:48:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T05:48:39","slug":"nuclear-energy-could-be-a-godsend-for-bidens-green-agenda-heres-whats-holding-it-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=328461","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear Energy Could Be A Godsend For Biden\u2019s Green Agenda. Here\u2019s What\u2019s Holding It Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Nuclear power plant with yellow field and big blue clouds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Daily Caller<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

By NICK POPE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTRIBUTOR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nuclear energy is effective at scale and produces no emissions, but the technology may not be poised to play a leading role in President Joe Biden\u2019s green agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American policymakers, primarily Democrats and their appointees, are pushing hard to realize the Biden administration\u2019s goal<\/a> of having the U.S. power sector reach net-zero emissions by 2035, but wind<\/a>, solar and other renewable generation sources have not yet shown the same degree of reliability that nuclear has demonstrated. Despite these facts, Biden and lawmakers have so far failed to simplify the nuclear regulatory and permitting process, according to energy sector experts who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration often<\/a> mentions<\/a> nuclear alongside solar and wind, but U.S. nuclear capacity has remained mostly stagnant since 1980, according<\/a> to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). While new solar and wind projects are being announced and built with generally increasing frequency, only a handful of new nuclear reactors have come online in the past twenty years, a trend that may not change in the absence of significant policy and regulatory changes, according<\/a> to EIA and power sector experts who spoke with the DCNF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNuclear\u2019s costs are enormous, because of the regulatory morass created by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). It would be better to scrap the whole thing and go back to the Atomic Energy Commission, which actually worked to ensure safe, secure and affordable nuclear technologies,\u201d Dan Kish, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told the DCNF. \u201cNuclear would be the obvious answer if the Greens and Biden truly want to electrify everything and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but they also oppose natural gas that has reduced coal emissions, so I wouldn\u2019t hold my breath. They don\u2019t seem to want anything that solves the problems they insist exist, so I expect them to continue to reject things that actually work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration has spent at least\u00a0$1 trillion<\/a>\u00a0to advance its climate agenda, and generous subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021 are designed to accelerate a transition away from fossil fuels. Both the\u00a0infrastructure<\/a>\u00a0package and the\u00a0IRA<\/a>\u00a0contain provisions designed to forestall the early retirement of nuclear facilities. However, neither law sufficiently streamlined the\u00a0complex<\/a>\u00a0regulatory environment for nuclear or significantly reduced the overhead costs of building new capacity, John Starkey, director of public policy for the American Nuclear Society, told the DCNF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incentives in the IRA and infrastructure bills are a \u201cgreat start,\u201d but \u201cmore assistance for cost overruns and early mover support for first-of-a-kind advanced reactors would also be helpful,\u201d Starkey told the DCNF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The administration has\u00a0expressed<\/a>\u00a0a desire to build up a domestic supply chain for nuclear power, which is\u00a0dominated<\/a>\u00a0by Russia and China. However, Biden also\u00a0designated<\/a>\u00a0a nearly one million acres of uranium-rich land in Arizona as a national monument in August 2023, prohibiting future mining claims in the covered area.\u00a0(RELATED: Enviros Cheered New York For Shutting Down Huge Nuke Plant. Then Emissions Jumped)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\ud83d\udea8EXCLUSIVE\ud83d\udea8 from @mikeginsberg98<\/a>

Members Of Congress Push Defense Department To Embrace Nuclear Energy https:\/\/t.co\/KeYmwzHj6X<\/a><\/p>— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 13, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>