Upcoming Closure of US Nuclear Plants Requires Other Low-Carbon Power - Scientist Group
US efforts to combat climate change will require policies to aggressively promote low-carbon, non-nuclear power sources such as a tax on carbon emissions, especially with more than one-third of the nation's nuclear plants at risk of closure or slated for early retirement in the next decade, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) said on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th November, 2018) US efforts to combat climate change will require policies to aggressively promote low-carbon, non-nuclear power sources such as a tax on carbon emissions, especially with more than one-third of the nation's nuclear plants at risk of closure or slated for early retirement in the next decade, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) said on Thursday.
"Nuclear power plants are being squeezed economically at a time when we need every source of low-carbon power we can get to replace retiring coal plants and prevent an overreliance on natural gas," UCS Director of Energy Research and Analysis Steve Clemmer said in a press release. "Strong policies can prevent the abrupt closure of nuclear plants that meet stringent safety standards, while we continue to ramp-up investments in renewables, efficiency and other low carbon technologies to drive down emissions.
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Early nuclear plant retirements pose no threat to the nation's electricity reliability and resilience, the release explained. Instead, the threat lies in the potential replacement of low-carbon nuclear power with fossil fuels.
To mitigate that threat, the UCS report recommends a tax of $25 per ton of carbon emitted on power plants beginning in 2020, with the tax increasing at a rate of 5 percent per year, the release noted.
UCS estimated that its recommended tax would reduce cumulative US power sector carbon emissions 28 percent by 2035, according to the release.