Richard Harris reported in 2013 that California is regarded as the leading state when it comes to addressing climate change. But in 2012, according to analysts at Rhodium Group, the California carbon emissions actually increased more than 10 per cent, bucking the national trend of decreases. That is in large part because California shut down one of its few remaining nuclear power plants. That rise in carbon emissions underscores the huge impact nuclear power can have in efforts to combat climate change. Armond Cohen, executive director of the Clean Air Task Force, cites the shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station as he explains why he has reluctantly shifted from being an anti-nuclear activist to someone who now argues that we cannot afford to dismiss nuclear power.
Cohen says authorities did the right thing when they shut down the troubled and aging nuclear plant near San Diego. But he is not happy to see California lose a major source of low-carbon energy. San Onofre produced as much carbon-free energy as all the wind power installed in California to date. So it is going to be a pretty heavy lift to replace all that nuclear with low-carbon energy. As a lawyer in the 1980s, Cohen fought against the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire. But he has since become a proponent of nuclear power, as he looks at the world from a perspective of trying to stop global warming. The world demand for energy is likely to double or triple in the next few decades. And while wind and solar power should be expanded as fast as they can, Cohen says, he is just plain worried about how quickly they can grow from their niche status today. But it is a question of scale.
Original working URL: https://www.npr.org/2013/12/17/251781788/environmentalists-split-over-need-for-nuclear-power
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