Breakthrough Update

	Clearing the Air EPA Climate Rule Not Designed to Keep Nuclear Plants Open The US power sector risks increasing carbon emissions by 104 million tons if license extensions are not granted to at-risk plants. This is entirely permissible under the Clean Power Plan, which allows nuclear plants to be decommissioned and replaced with fossil energy as long as the new fossil energy has a carbon intensity below the state-level target set by the EPA. by Alex Trembath and Michael Shellenberger The Diablo We Know The Case for Keeping California's Last Nuclear Plant California’s last remaining nuclear power plant – and the lynchpin of the state’s clean energy production – Diablo Canyon faces a number of threats from both antinuclear environmentalists and state regulators, whose bill of particulars against the plant gives a distorted picture of its impacts on the natural world and on human well-being. But by fixating on largely groundless scenarios of risk, antinuclear advocates ignore the far worse problems that nuclear power solves with its enormous production of low-carbon electricity. The plant’s premature closure could add hundreds of million of tons of greenhouse emissions to the atmosphere and set back the task of making the state’s energy supply cleaner and healthier by many years. The struggle over Diablo Canyon raises questions about whether the environmental movement and the regulatory state it has created are up to the task. by Will Boisvert Antinuclear Effect of the Clean Power Plan Could Allow Emissions to Rise EPA Says Energy Trends Will Remain Consistent Even "In Absense of this Rule" States that close existing nuclear power plants could be allowed to increase carbon dioxide emissions under a final EPA rule regulating carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. The EPA acknowledged that its rule would likely not alter existing rates of deployment or decommissioning for either nuclear or renewables. While EPA declined to provide an incentive to keep nuclear power plants online, it said it would subsidize wind, solar, and energy efficiency as part of its Clean Energy Incentive Program. by Breakthrough Staff Technology Leads, Regulation Follows EPA Clean Power Plan Locks in Existing Energy Trends The EPA's Clean Power Plan codifies existing trends in the US power sector – namely, the ongoing shift from coal to natural gas and the more marginal growth of renewables and some new nuclear construction. Thus, like in past environmental regulation, the results are entirely dependent upon changes in technology. by Alex Trembath