The Democrats $2.3 trillion climate infrastructure bill could worsen blackouts, inflation, & poverty but, in the biggest pro-nuclear victory to date, could also save America's nuclear plants

My latest for Substack, please share! https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/biden-goes-nuclear-in-big-atomic

Over the last five years, my colleagues and I have worked with scientists and environmentalists around the world to stop anti-nuclear activists from shutting down nuclear power plants.

I testified six times before Congress, gave three TED talks that have been viewed over six million times, and published Apocalypse Never, which argues that only nuclear energy can guarantee universal prosperity and environmental progress.

I am happy to announce that today the pro-nuclear movement is on the cusp of its biggest victory to date.

The White House has announced that it will support a tax credit to level the playing field between nuclear energy and heavily-subsidized renewables, which could be enough to save most of America’s nuclear plants at risk of closing.

“We are not going to be able to achieve our climate goals if nuclear power plants shut down,” testified Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “We have to find ways to keep them operating.”

Support for nuclear comes from another unlikely source: Senator Joe Manchin, a pro-coal Democrat from West Virginia. Manchin wrote a pro-nuclear letter to President Joe Biden last month.

"I believe preventing closures of nuclear plants is critical to achieving emission reduction goals and ensuring a reliable grid," said Manchin. "I urge you to take action to preserve our existing nuclear fleet and prevent further closures.”

I met Senator Manchin on March 11 of this year when he, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, invited my expert testimony about the contribution of weather-dependent renewables to blackouts in California in Texas.

I explained why nuclear power saved lives during the Texas cold snap, and how the loss of a nuclear plant in California contributed to last August’s blackouts.

Our victory is by no means assured. Powerful financial interests within the Democratic Party are lobbying the White House against action.

The most influential environmental group among Democrats, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), is directly invested in solar panels made in China, and natural gas stocks, through BlackRock, the shadow bank whose former executive, Brian Deese, is Biden’s economic advisor

And Biden’s proposed support for nuclear is tied to his $2.3 trillion climate infrastructure legislation proposal being considered in Congress which, as I have documented, would raise energy prices, kill endangered species, and increase the risk of blackouts.

Just 5% of $2.3 trillion the Democrats are asking for would go to roads and bridges. Most troubling, the legislation risks worsening inflation, which could cause the Fed to raise interest rates, which would hurt poor and working people the most.

But whether or not this particular legislative tactic works, there is growing support in Congress to save America’s nuclear plants, and the lesson of this victory remains the same.

The only way to save nuclear energy is by caring about both prosperity and environmental progress, telling the truth about the technology, and standing up for nuclear, publicly and passionately.