California Clean Energy Committee

April 02, 2021

World Nuclear News: "Private investors need to see clear and consistent political support for nuclear energy as a way to tackle climate change if they are to play a role in raising the large amount of capital required for new-build projects, Stephen Vaughan, vice chair of Energy & Power at Rothschild & Co, said yesterday during World Nuclear Association's Strategic eForum on Sustainable Finance."

April 02, 2021

Bloomberg: “'The safety record here in the U.S. is extraordinarily strong,' Good said, referring to nuclear power. 'Frankly, I don’t see a way for us to reach our carbon goals without nuclear being part of the equation.'"

February 25, 2021

Mark P. Mills: "To fix green unreliability, proponents are pushing grid-scale batteries. For perspective, however, consider what would be required for the Texas grid to handle predictable occurrences of several days without wind or sunlight. The quantity of batteries needed equals a decade’s worth of the entire world’s production, at a cost well north of $400 billion, an amount of money that could build enough nuclear plants to power the entire Texas grid for the next century, not just a few days."

"This says nothing about the global emissions associated with fabricating the batteries. Most batteries, and the key materials needed to make them, are produced mainly in Asia (primarily China) on coal-dominated grids. Don’t ignore, either, the gigatons of “energy minerals” that must be mined, along with those attendant environmental and geopolitical costs. The storage of electricity at grid scales is limited by physics barriers, not engineering challenges."

February 22, 2021

World Nuclear News: "In his interview with the Financial Times, published yesterday, Kajiyama said: 'Personally, I think nuclear power will be indispensable.' He described Japan's electricity supply as 'touch-and-go' during heavy snowfall last month, which resulted in high electricity prices and tight supplies in some areas of the country. 'Solar wasn't generating. Wind wasn't generating. I'm trying to persuade everybody that in the end we need nuclear power.'

February 11, 2021

The Hill: "During his campaign, Biden ran on a sweeping clean energy plan, pledging to achieve a carbon-free electricity sector by 2035 with net zero emissions economy-wide by 2050 as part of his “all of government” plan for climate. The president’s proposed tech-neutral approach opens the door for an inclusive plan to combat climate change, which includes nuclear power — the nation’s largest carbon-free source of energy. This marks the first time nuclear power has been a part of the Democratic platform since 1972."

February 10, 2021

NEI: "Wind farms require up to 360 times as much land area to produce the same amount of electricity as a nuclear energy facility, a Nuclear Energy Institute analysis has found. Solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities require up to 75 times the land area."

February 07, 2021

Power Engineering: "A new report by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology examined various scenarios for the decarbonization of the nation’s electricity sector. The MIT researcher’s simulations showed that availability of nuclear powered generation would help reduce the needed carbon price by up to 67 percent (to less than $40 per ton) in meeting a 90-percent reduction target (below 2005 levels) by 2050."

January 10, 2021

respectmyplanet: "The Redlands Rail project in San Bernadino California is already under construction & will be operational by 2021. A hydrogen fuel cell powered train is on order from Stadler that should be operational on the new route by 2024."  

See also World's First Hydrogen-Power Rail Service.

December 27, 2020

Forbes: "Renewables are more costly than both gas and nuclear, but their 2.5 cent/kWh tax credit, plus state mandates and federal construction subsidies, seem warranted given the fears of climate change.

"Nuclear plants are only about a cent/kWh higher than gas so a subsidy, much smaller than that for renewables, is certainly warranted, and has been borne out by reality."

December 21, 2020

Citizens Climate Lobby:  John Kerry, nominee for climate envoy, writes, “With carbon pricing, those causing emissions pay for the cost of damage. Without carbon pricing, we all pay the cost.”

Janet Yellen, nominee for Treasury Secretary, said last year, “I believe that climate change is a serious problem demanding an immediate policy response and a carbon tax offers the most cost-effective lever to reduce carbon emissions at the scale and speed that is necessary."

Gina McCarthy, nominee to head White House Office of Climate Policy, says, "If Congress can pass a tax that does more than we’re able to do through regulation, I would consider that to be one of the greatest successes we’ve had to address one of the greatest public health threats of our time.”