Biden is betting big on nuclear energy. But what happens if the next Hurricane Ian strikes Turkey Point?

The situation at Turkey Point highlights the potential risks with Biden’s energy strategy as the nation’s nuclear facilities age and extreme weather grows worse.

Biden is betting big on nuclear energy. But what happens if the next Hurricane Ian strikes Turkey Point?

ACT NOW: Tell the House to Oppose the Nuclear Bailout and Save the Climate!

ACT NOW: Tell the House to Oppose the Nuclear Bailout and Save the Climate!

BIG NEWS: West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin reached a deal with Congressional Democrats on a sweeping climate and energy package that supposedly would address the climate crisis, now called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). The Senate passed the bill on Sunday, August 7, and the House of Representatives plans to vote on it this Friday, August 12. 

This bill could have been our best – and maybe our only – chance to make real progress on fighting climate change and creating the just environmental and economic future the Biden administration promised voters. It should've been a major success for climate policy, thanks to tireless activists who worked to hold Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer accountable to get Sen. Manchin to the table on climate.

But, among the desperately needed good progressive measures in the IRA are bad policies and hundreds of billions of dollars in poison pills – handouts to fossil fuels, false climate solutions, and Big Nuclear. These provisions would profit dirty and polluting energy industries that are causing climate and ecological crises at the expense of taxpayers, environmental justice, and TRUE investment in the 100% renewable, just, and sustainable energy future we deserve. 

Frankly, the harm they would cause can’t be justified, and may actually block renewable energy and other real climate solutions in the bill.

Of the $369 billion dollars, up to $72 billion is slated for subsidies to aging nuclear reactors — a wasteful expenditure that will not create a single new job, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by any amount, nor make any progress towards climate action. The measure is nothing more than a corrupt bailout scam by the nuclear industry and their cronies in Congress. There is also: 

    $250 billion in taxpayer-guaranteed loans to prop up old nuclear and fossil fuel power plants 

    $40 billion in taxpayer loans that could go to building new reactors and fossil fuel power plants

    $700 million to promote domestic uranium mining and enrichment

We cannot settle for the inadequate, unjust, and wasteful policies in the Inflation Reduction Act. We cannot settle for a bill that backs false climate solutions and sacrifices frontline communities. We MUST demand better from Congress: a strong national policy for climate, the economy, and for environmental justice. The time to act is now. Demand that Congress and the Biden administration eliminate the massive subsidies to nuclear power and other dirty energy. 

Speak up today! Tell Your Representatives: Don’t Waste our Climate Future on False Solutions

After 60 years of nuclear power, the industry survives only on stupendous subsidies - The Ecologist

Almost 60 years since the world's first commercial nuclear power station began to deliver power to the UK's grid, the industry remains as far from being able to cover its costs as ever, writes Pete Dolack. But while unfunded liabilities increase year by year, governments are still willing to commit their taxpayers' billions to new nuclear plants with no hope of ever being viable.

If the owners and operators of nuclear reactors had to face the full costs, no one would have built a nuclear reactor in the past, no one would build a reactor today, and anyone who owned one would exit the nuclear business as quickly as they could.

The ongoing environmental disaster at Fukushima is a grim enough reminder of the dangers of nuclear power. But nuclear does not make sense economically, either.

The entire industry would not exist without massive government subsidies. Quite an insult: Subsidies prop up an industry that points a dagger at the heart of the communities where ever it operates.

The building of nuclear power plants drastically slowed after the disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, so it is at a minimum reckless that the latest attempt to resuscitate nuclear power pushes forward heedless of Fukushima's discharge of radioactive materials into the air, soil and ocean…

more: After 60 years of nuclear power, the industry survives only on stupendous subsidies - The Ecologist

A bittersweet Clean Energy Standard in NY

By now you may have heard that New York State adopted a “Clean Energy Standard” last Monday, one that finally puts a requirement on utilities to buy renewable energy, but one that also requires that we all pay to subsidize unprofitable nuclear power plants. The nuclear portion of the policy will cost New Yorkers over $7 billion, and it locks in these escalating nuclear subsidies for 12 years. The policy is designed to ensure that nuclear plants on the brink of closure will not close, and that they will be insulated from competition from energy efficiency and renewables.
 
It was a bittersweet day for us at Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE) because we have fought hard over the last two years for that renewable energy mandate on utilities, and we also fought tooth and nail against that nuclear bailout. We are glad to see New York joining other states in an enforceable renewable energy policy, but we are outraged that our “Clean Energy Standard” got hijacked by nuclear corporations and that our Governor and the New York Public Service Commission rammed through the nuclear bailout over the objections of environmentalists, consumer advocates, elected officials and the business community.

We were also disappointed that the Commission did not heed the strong demands coming from all over the state for enforceable energy efficiency targets, nor did it commit to a certain amount of offshore wind development. Instead, they kicked those decisions down the road to another time...

more: A bittersweet Clean Energy Standard in NY

whats up: #BustTheMyth – nukes are NOT carbon-free, clean, safe, green, or affordable!

EDF sinks to all-time low as nuclear waste cost estimate soars | Reuters

PARIS, Jan 12 Shares in French utility EDF sank to all-time lows on Tuesday after the country's Andra nuclear waste agency said that storage costs could be higher than EDF's estimates, although EDF disputed Andra's figures. Mirroring German utilities E.ON and RWE , which saw their shares hit decade lows late last year over worries about nuclear decommissioning costs, shares in EDF fell as much as 7.3 percent before closing down 4.4 percent at 11.96 euros...

more: UPDATE 1-EDF sinks to all-time low as nuclear waste cost estimate soars | Reuters

Aging Nuclear Power Plant Must Close Before It Closes Us

We must face facts regarding the Indian Point nuclear plant. It’s infrastructure is aging, its safety is dubious and most everyone knows it. What many people don’t know is that it can be replaced at little cost to ratepayers—and energy technologies taking its place would create new economic opportunities for New York.

Indian Point—just 38 miles north of New York City—is vulnerable to terrorism, has 2,000 tons of radioactive waste packed into leaking pools and relies on an unworkable evacuation plan. While some argue that transformer accidents—such as the one that occurred last month—can happen at any power facility, they happen with astonishing frequency at Indian Point. Its age is problematic: You wouldn’t rely on a 40-year-old appliance, why extend this trust to a nuclear plant? Moreover, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) says Indian Point 3 has the highest risk of earthquake damage of all the nation’s reactors. About 20 million people live within 50 miles of Indian Point. If a catastrophic accident occurred, the consequences would be unimaginable...

more: Aging Nuclear Power Plant Must Close Before It Closes Us