by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As appearing on Townall.com
Perhaps that is why the decision has been met with such quiet acceptance, more of a reluctant acknowledgment of what the movement could not admit: nuclear may be the zero-emission energy pillar that wind and solar never managed to become.
Call it inconvenient timing. This week the climate elite are in Manhattan for Climate Week, many arriving by private jet to lecture everyone else about the virtues of wind and solar while ignoring the fact that their host state is turning to the one technology they still cannot abide.
In the lead up to Hochul’s decision, New York’s energy policy had become a contradiction: mandate more electrification while dismantling its power sources. The premature closure of Indian Point nuclear power plant, once a vital source of energy for New York City, created a massive supply gap that renewables could not fill.
Nonetheless, the state forged ahead with phasing out fossil-fuels and simultaneously instituting EV mandates and conversions to electric heating that require vast amounts of reliable power. Wind and solar cannot meet this surging demand, and battery storage remains prohibitively expensive. Nuclear is the only technology that delivers emissions-free electricity, around the clock, at the scale modern life demands.
