Still Time to Save Nuclear in Illinois & California — But We Must Act Now from Michael Shellenberger

We can still save Illinois & California nuclear — but only if true environmentalists show courage and take action. Statement by Environmental Progress President Michael Shellenberger: Exelon's announcement that it will close Quad Cities and Clinton nuclear plants is just the latest indication that we are in a clean energy emergency. If Quad and Clinton are closed, Illinois will lose one-quarter of all its clean energy, over 1,500 jobs, and its standing as a clean energy leader. If we lose all 13 nuclear plants at high-risk of closing in the next two years, we will wipe out three times the solar electricity we generated in 2015. If we lose all plants at risk of closing before 2030 we will wipe out 43 percent of the emissions reductions in President Obama's Clean Power Plan.  Nuclear plants are in trouble everywhere for the same reason. People believe that nuclear energy is something it is not, and cannot see it for what it is. Nuclear is our safest way of generating electricity, and our only reliable clean energy source. Many of our nuclear plants can operate for another 20, 30 and even 50 years. But many people have come to believe the opposite.   The result is that nuclear suffers from double discrimination. Nuclear plants are excluded from the federal subsidies and state mandates for solar and wind, either of which would be more than enough to protect nuclear energy .   It is not too late to save Quad and Clinton. But will require that moderate environmental groups show courage and break from the dogmatically anti-nuclear groups that openly say they want to replace nuclear plants with natural gas.  Saving Quad and Clinton will cost less than half the cost of the federal wind subsidy, and will protect Illinois rate-payers from future price shocks when natural gas prices, today at a historic low, go up. What happens next will reveal whether Environmental Defense Fund, NRDC and Sierra Club care more about addressing climate change than continuing with their counterproductive and outmoded effort to dismantle our largest source of clean power.  We also urge President Obama, Congress and the Department of Energy to take swift action. Talk is not enough. Protecting clean energy and the climate will require real world actions.  And we urge true environmentalists who support all clean energy sources to take action, and especially participate in the Rally and March for Environmental Hope! this June 22 - 24. We can still save our largest source of clean energy — but it will require real-world action. [Press release on the March follows] For Immediate Release: Julia Pacetti, JMP Verdant Communications, (718)399-0400, Eric Meyer, March for Environmental Hope!, (218)384-1645 With Nuclear Plant Closures Increasing Emissions, Environmental Coalition Announces Historic Protest, June 24 - 28, SF - Sacramento CLOSURES OF NUCLEAR IN VERMONT AND CALIFORNIA INCREASED EMISSIONS, THE DATA SHOW 13 US NUCLEAR PLANTS AT RISK OF CLOSURE PRODUCE 3 TIMES MORE ELECTRICITY THAN ALL US SOLAR IN 2015   June 2, 2016 — With 13 nuclear plants at risk of closing and taking the United States backwards on climate change, a coalition of environmental groups is announcing a historic pro-nuclear protest march from San Francisco to Sacramento, June 24 - 28. “If we lose all 13 of the nuclear plants at risk of premature closure we will wipe out three times more clean power than all of our solar provided in 2015,” said the March’s Lead Organizer, Eric G. Meyer. “If you care about renewables, clean energy and climate change, you should support keeping nuclear plants open.” In Illinois, a coalition of anti-nuclear groups including by Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC), Sierra Club, and NRDC blocked legislation that would have saved two of the state’s nuclear plants, Clinton and Quad Cities. ELPC has said it wants to replace the nuclear plants with natural gas, and gradually wind and solar. "Everybody looks with excitement when a new natural gas plant is built," ELPC head, Howard Learner recently told a journalist when explaining why he supports closing Clinton and Quad, an extraordinary statement coming from a self-professed environmental activist. “Anti-nuclear groups should be forgiven for they believe nuclear energy is something it’s not, and can’t see it for what it is,” said Alan Medsker of Environmental Progress, Illinois. “But we cannot allow them to shut down Quad and Clinton. It’s time for Sierra Club, the Citizens Utility Board and Environmental Defense Fund to break from ELPC. There’s still time to pass legislation that would invest not only in renewables but also protect our largest source of clean energy.” If Clinton and Quad close, 1,500 workers will lose their jobs and carbon emissions will increase the equivalent of adding two million cars to the road. The proposed subsidy for distressed nuclear plants is less than half the cost the wind production tax credit. Nuclear plants around the country are closing prematurely because they are excluded from the various federal subsidies and state mandates for solar and wind. If nuclear were included in state Renewable Portfolio Standards, or received a fraction of the subsidy for wind or solar, nuclear plants would be economical. “The evidence is clear: nuclear is far more effective at replacing fossil fuels and reducing pollution and carbon emissions than solar and wind. To exclude it from any clean energy standard in the face of irreversible climate devastation is simply unethical,” said Meyer. “It’s a mathematical certainty that closing nuclear plants results in more fossil fuel burning and emissions,” says Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Robert Stone, whose award-winning film “Pandora’s Promise” documents the conversion of many environmentalists from anti-nuclear to pro-nuclear. “California’s reputation as a leader in the fight against climate change is at stake if Diablo Canyon is shut down.”   “It’s vitally important for any of us that care about the environment-- progressives or conservatives-- to share that message with Governor Jerry Brown,” said Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb. “People fear nuclear power largely because they associate it with nuclear weapons, but the two don’t equate. Nuclear power is not only an important part of the answer to climate change. It has outstanding public health benefits as well, greatly reducing air pollution.” The March will occur in the run-up to a Tuesday, June 28, California Lands Commission meeting, where Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and two other members could deny a critical permit to Diablo Canyon, California’s biggest source of clean energy. March coalition members includes Mothers for Nuclear, Thorium Energy Alliance, Environmental Progress, Pandora's Promise, and Energy for Humanity — all are organizations independent of energy companies and interests. “We can’t let irrational fears put our children at risk,” said Mothers for Nuclear co-founder, Heather Matteson, an environmental activist who was once anti-nuclear but changed her mind and now works as a reactor operator and procedure writer at Diablo Canyon. The 13 nuclear plants at high risk of premature closure produce three times more electrical power than the US produces from solar. Diablo Canyon produces 11 times more power than the world’s largest solar farm, Solar Star, will produce. Rather than simply replacing fossil fuel use, as nuclear plants do, plants like Solar Star increase the demand for natural gas when the sun is not shining which is on average more than 75 percent of the time. Eric G. Meyer, 28, quit his job as a nurses union organizer and drove to San Francisco from Minnesota last month to be the Lead Organizer of the March. “My heart breaks every time they announce nuclear plant closure,” said Meyer. “We’re going to fight hard to save every last one of those 13 plants. This is going to be remembered as the summer that we saved our largest source of clean energy.” ###