Dr. Conca also just reported that natural gas, the darling energy industry, has decided it needs to attack its biggest competitor, nuclear power. The American Petroleum Institute has flooded the airwaves in Ohio and Pennsylvania with anti-nuke commercials and has even drawn in AARP by pushing fear, fear of higher prices and fear of radiation. Just the opposite of what is true. This is ironic since the natural gas industry emits more radioactivity than all of nuclear in America combined (as radium scale is gas and oil piping i.e., NORM). And more people die every year from natural gas (i.e., explosions, de-railings, etc.) than any other electricity source, except coal. The issue in these states is that warped wholesale electricity markets, renewable subsidies and temporarily cheap natural gas from hydraulic fracing have made low-cost nuclear power just not low enough for short-term profitability, putting some nuclear plants at risk of closing (or shuttering).
Several have already closed and six more are scheduled to close in the next ten years. Most climate scientists, like Jim Hansen, and economists say that a small subsidy, much smaller than renewables get, is necessary to keep these plants open and preserve both the low-carbon power and the generation diversity needed to withstand changes in the market and in the climate. During the last Polar Vortex, nuclear was the only source unaffected by the extreme cold. And nuclear costs are stable and predictable for decades, unlike natural gas or renewables. The trend has power regulators worried, with those in New York and Illinois recently approving subsidies to keep their nuclear fleets operating, saving thousands of high-paying jobs and most of the states clean energy. The regulators and utility operators know how important energy diversity and baseload power are to the stability of the electric grid. This is an esoteric concept that most people do not understand, yet it rules their daily energy lives. Read on.
Original URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2017/06/15/natural-gas-industry-blasts-nuclear-power-with-fake-news/#44e689d9133b
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