The debate is over. Nuclear power has been officially adopted by the last remaining American faction opposing it as its favored power sources it gave generous financial grants to and leaned on heavily in its environmental image-marketing continue to fail financially and require more fossil fuel to run than they eliminate. Both of those faults have been targets of Republicans and non-partisan pro-nuclear energy proponents for awhile, but it seemed as though Democrats were intent on holding onto the money losing failures and environment worseners just so they could keep that marketing angle alive since wind and solar have such better PR with the general public and their voter base in particular to give up on.
But give up, they did. Which is rare that you get to live to see a public partisan debate like this actually get solved with a concession like this.
In May (2021), Biden White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy told attendees at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy that nuclear power would be “essential” to fight global warming (something Republicans have been saying for decades, pointing out that nuclear power has zero carbon emission and a low environmental footprint).
Still, that’s just an adviser saying it. But now, Biden’s Secretary of Energy is echoing the same line, making clear that the administrations official position is now pro-nuclear and they are just quietly unfolding that change in position so as to save face:
Granholm had previously test-suggested the concept of federal subsidies for nuclear power plants back in May as well, but it didn’t get much press coverage then as her reiterations that more definitively state support for nuclear power (and stated in a more official and public announcement) mark a big shift.
Developing…