NYC Shocked to Discover Solar/Wind Can't Compete with Nuclear

Math is hard, but adding up the Megawatts generated isn't that hard. A nuclear plant’s closure was hailed as a green win. Then emissions went up

When New York’s deteriorating and unloved Indian Point nuclear plant finally shuttered in 2021, its demise was met with delight from environmentalists who had long demanded it be scrapped.

But there has been a sting in the tail – since the closure, New York’s greenhouse gas emissions have gone up.

I'm shocked that good intentions and rainbow dreams can't compete with reality. Okay, so I'm not shocked, but the "environmentalists" in New York were shocked.

“From a climate change point of view it’s been a real step backwards and made it harder for New York City to decarbonize its electricity supply than it could’ve been,” said Ben Furnas, a climate and energy policy expert at Cornell University. “This has been a cautionary tale that has left New York in a really challenging spot.”

I don't expect the Left to embrace nuclear, because as we all know, "Nuclear bad." It does have the advantage of actually generating power, however.

Whenever the subject of nuclear comes up, someone will mention "But Chernobyl!" And another person will say "Fukushima!!!!" Yes, Chernobyl was a disaster, but that reactor - built by the Soviets at the dawn of the nuclear age - has nothing whatsoever to do with nuclear power plants in the US. And no one - count them, ZERO people - died from exposure to radiation due to the catastrophe at the Fukushima Diiaichi power plant that resulted from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011. No. One. Died. Something on the order of 1400 people died from government-induced panic, because "NUUUCLEEEAR!". Or something. (You can't evacuate hospital intensive care wards to high school gymnasiums and expect everyone to survive, but that is exactly what the Japanese government did.) And yes, a lot of people died in the tsunami.

Here's a link to a post on the Fear of Radiation and the damage it did. The underlying article for that post has been moved behind a paywall, but it sums up the problem of fear-driving-policy.