Nuclear power is linked to increased carbon emissions

it will be “no power to the people”, but by the time these morons discover that it will be too late

But not exactly the way the anti-nuke greens had hoped: au contraire. CO2 emissions have increased in states that have shut down their nuke plants (duh)

Greenhouse gas emissions have surged in multiple Northeast states that shuttered nuclear power plants since 2019, Politico reported.

The states — Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania — closed down the zero-emissions nuclear reactors in recent years, even as they announced ambitious pledges to transition away from fossil fuels, according to Politico. Since 2019, carbon dioxide emissions, caused by burning fossil fuels like petroleum, coal and natural gas, have increased 15%, 12% and 3% in New York, New England and Pennsylvania respectively, federal data showed.

“If the goal is that we’re moving to 100% zero-carbon electricity, closing zero-carbon resources doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Melissa Lott, director of research at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy, told Politico. “We’re just digging the hole deeper.”

Electricity production is the second-largest source of emissions nationwide, only trailing the transportation sector, according to the Energy Information Administration. Coal power generation, the dirtiest and highest-emitting form of electricity production, increased for the first time since 2014 in 2021.

Not only is nuclear power emissions-free, but it is also renewable energy, which at one time the greens and Democrats claimed they wanted. Now, they’re after the deindustrialization of western civilization, which is easier.

As New Yorkers are hit with skyrocketing electric bills and face the prospect of cold, dark homes in the coming years, they may want to erect a statue in honor of Irene Dickenson, the woman who shut down Indian Point and New York’s entire nuclear energy program. From a hagiography penned just last year:

Bursts of sun broke the winter chill, warming the 200 anti-nuclear activists gathered in Buchanan to protest the Indian Point nuclear plants. Skull-and-crossbones picket signs dotted the air. A congresswoman and state assemblyman addressed the crowd: nuclear power is a threat to the environment; the government should invest in alternative energy. Chants of “shut it down” punctuated the speeches.

The year was not 2021. It was February 29, 1976.

Ossining’s Irene Dickinson, a veteran of the peace movement and a leader of the anti-Indian Point demonstration, did not take the speakers’ stage that day. She didn’t chant with fellow demonstrators. Instead, she waded into the pro-nuclear fray to confront James Joy. A Journal News photographer captured the moment: a fearless Dickinson, 60, surrounded by yelling workers, her index finger pointed at the younger union leader’s face, castigating him for supporting what she considered the single greatest threat to the planet.

The anti-Indian Point campaign Dickinson began in the 1960s was a lonely one. Support for the plant was overwhelming. State and corporate money funded pro-Indian Point publicists and attorneys. Undeterred, she spoke at churches, libraries, schools and homes — anywhere someone would listen, such as the Rockland Ecological Coalition on November 9, 1970 where she was three items behind newspaper clean-up days

Renowned activist Connie Hogarth, then executive director of the Westchester People’s Action Coalition, which helped organize the 1976 demonstration, calls Dickinson “the mother of the anti-nuclear movement.” Attorney Anthony Roisman, who represented National Intervenors, an organization of sixty local and national anti-nuclear groups Dickinson co-founded to challenge plant licensing, spoke to me about their work together:

The backbone of the national anti-nuclear movement was predominantly women. Dickinson was smart and savvy. She worked tirelessly day and night. If you were crosswise, she was quick to the point. …. The impact of Dickinson's pioneering work extended well beyond Indian Point.

By the 1970s, seven more nuclear plants were planned for the Hudson Valley, but anti-nuclear fervor emanating from Buchanan inspired a wave of activism, and not one plant broke ground in New York State. Nationally, the nuclear industry crawled to a halt. On Jan. 9, 2017, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the agreement with Entergy to close Indian Point 2 and 3. It is too much to say the plants would have continued operation had Dickinson not led the first offensive, but I have no doubt they would have lived years longer.