 |
| Marv Fertel |
Following is a statement regarding President Obama’s plan to address climate change and control carbon emissions by the Nuclear Energy Institute’s president and chief executive officer, Marvin Fertel:
“The strength of America’s electric system is diversity of technologies and fuel types. When it comes to reducing the U.S. electric sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, efforts can succeed only if carbon-free nuclear energy plays a larger role in the nation’s electricity mix. That’s not simply the opinion of our industry. It is the determination made by several independent organizations that analyzed the leading climate change bills pending in Congress some five years ago when prospects for enacting legislative measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions appeared to have momentum. These include the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Information Administration, which found that between 69 and 187 new nuclear energy facilities would be needed to meet the bills’ carbon reduction objectives in the electricity sector.
“There is no debating this fact: Nuclear energy produces nearly two-thirds of America’s carbon-free electricity. As a nation, we cannot reach our energy and climate goals without the reliable, carbon-free electricity that nuclear power plants generate to power our homes, businesses and infrastructure.
“President Obama recognized this during the presidential campaign when he said, ‘It is unlikely we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power as an option.’ Likewise, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz supports the expansion of nuclear energy to meet national energy and environmental imperatives.
“Nuclear energy must continue to be a major part of the nation’s energy portfolio if we wish to effectively reduce carbon emissions to protect the environment, and to expand our supply of reliable, affordable electricity. We look forward to working with the administration to help achieve these extremely important goals.”
For more on the President's speech, please follow our
Twitter feed.
Comments
James Greenidge
Queens NY
This is demonstrably false.
Moniz has chosen a long-time Union of Concerned "Scientists" wonk as his chief of staff. Despite the UCS's protestations to the contrary, the UCS has been stridently anti-nuclear in their entire ~40 year history. From their anti-nuclear ads in SciAm in the mid-late 70s to their spokesperson's whacky statement on NPR a few years ago, "Nuclear winter is not the answer to global warming" to every policy paper they've ever written that mentions nuclear.
If Moniz actually supported the expansion of nuclear power, he would not have chosen a person with absolutely no energy science credentials and nothing but anti-nuclear and anti-science policy credentials as his chief of staff.
But, hey, go on whistling if it makes you feel better over there in the dark.