Bernie Sanders wants to phase out nuclear power plants. Is that a good idea?

 online interview  Comments Off on Bernie Sanders wants to phase out nuclear power plants. Is that a good idea?
Mar 282016
 

By Ben Adler

You’ve probably heard that Bernie Sanders has the most impressive climate agenda of any major-party presidential candidate in history. His proposals may be politically unrealistic, but they are bold. If Sanders were president and he had a pliant Congress, his carbon tax and investments in renewables would radically overhaul our energy system for the better. (…)

Some other green groups take a more nuanced approach. NRDC, for example, supports relicensing plants in situations where it’s safer and the plants can’t yet be replaced by renewable energy, and it calls for rejecting those — such as Indian Point in Westchester, N.Y. — that are uniquely dangerous.

Alexander Ochs, senior director of climate and energy at the Worldwatch Institute, says we should put a moratorium on new nuclear plant construction and subject existing plants to “the closest safety scrutiny.” In the end, while these policy positions are based on a different analysis than Sanders’, they differ from his in degree more than in kind: they would hasten the natural death of nuclear energy, only more slowly than Sanders would, in the interest of limiting short-term emissions. (…)

Read full article [here].
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Pershing to Take Climate Post at DOE After Resigning as No. 2 U.S. Negotiator

 newspaper interview  Comments Off on Pershing to Take Climate Post at DOE After Resigning as No. 2 U.S. Negotiator
Jan 242013
 

Jonathan Pershing is resigning as a senior U.S. climate negotiator at the State Department and moving to the Energy Department to serve as a senior climate policy official, the State Department said Jan. 18. Pershing has been deputy special envoy for climate change at the State Department since March 2009, serving as the No. 2 U.S. climate negotiator under U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern and representing the United States at international climate change negotiations. (…)

It is possible that the position will not be continued or will be redesigned under the leadership of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), said Alexander Ochs, director of climate and energy at the Worldwatch Institute. Kerry has been nominated by President Obama to replace outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (…)

You can find the full BNA Daily Environment Report & BNA Daily Report for Executives [HERE].