Key Issues

Climate Change Initiatives

Climate change increasingly is important as federal, state and local policymakers consider energy supply and greenhouse gas mitigation. Given those concerns and the need for baseload electricity production, policymakers and energy industry leaders are evaluating an expanded role for nuclear power.

Carbon mitigation strategies from Princeton University, Columbia University’s Earth Institute, Harvard University and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change have reached a similar conclusion: A clear path toward meeting the global challenge of reducing greenhouse gases relies in part on an expanded portfolio of low-emission sources of electricity, including nuclear power. To read more on NEI's position on climate change, please click here.

Nuclear Energy Holds ‘Great Potential’

A 2006 report by the Progressive Policy Institute says that expanding nuclear power should be part of a plan that would help avert a dangerous long-term energy crisis and address air-quality issues. The Institute’s “Progressive Energy Platform” states that nuclear energy “holds a great potential to be an integral part of the diversified energy portfolio for America.”

At a 2004 State of the Planet Conference at Columbia University, scientists, academics and government officials identified four essential elements for human well-being: energy, food, water and health. Maintaining access to energy, conferees said, “will require new technologies, in some combination of renewable and nuclear energy; energy conservation; and industrial carbon sequestration.”

Nuclear energy also is part of the strategy for combating climate change in an energy security plan released by the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank. The center recommends that America establish a “renewable portfolio standard” mandating that 10 percent to 25 percent of electricity be produced from renewable resources and nuclear energy by 2025.

States Recognize Nuclear Energy’s Clean-Air Contribution

Seven northeastern states in 2006 approved the first mandatory regional cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative treats all clean-air sources of electricity, such as nuclear power and renewables, equally in the greenhouse gas reduction framework. Nuclear plants generate about one-third of the region’s electricity. Three more states joined the initiative in 2007. The program takes effect Jan. 1, 2009.

NEI commissioned two RGGI implementation studies by the Boston-based engineering and environmental firm, Polestar Applied Technology, Inc. "Reducing CO2 Emissions in New England: The Imperative of Nuclear Power " was released in January of 2008. A similar study "Reducing CO2 Emissions in New Jersey: The Imperative of Nuclear Power " was released in November of 2007. Both studies demonstrate the value of nuclear energy in meeting RGGI emission reduction targets.