Measures moving through Congress to encourage new reactors are receiving broad bipartisan support, as lawmakers embrace a once-contentious technology.
The House this week overwhelmingly passed legislation meant to speed up the development of a new generation of nuclear power plants, the latest sign that a once-contentious source of energy is now attracting broad political support in Washington.
The 365-to-36 vote on Wednesday reflected the bipartisan nature of the bill, known as the Atomic Energy Advancement Act. It received backing from Democrats who support nuclear power because it does not emit greenhouse gases and can generate electricity 24 hours a day to supplement solar and wind power. It also received support from Republicans who have downplayed the risks of climate change but who say that nuclear power could bolster the nation’s economy and energy security.
“It’s been fascinating to see how bipartisan advanced nuclear power has become,” said Joshua Freed, who leads the climate and energy program at Third Way, a center-left think tank. “This is not an issue where there’s some big partisan or ideological divide.”
Very much necessary, wind and solar can only do so much. I just hope the nuclear power industry doesn’t fuck it up this time.
They didn’t fuck it up the first time, actually. Big oil smeared the industry into oblivion
Chernobyl and Three Mile Island didn’t help, but yes.
I take it everyone’s pretending Fukushima didn’t happen as well.
Chernobyl is irrelevant and three mile island killed no one and released no non negligible radiation into The environment. They buried the reactor but thatt’s about it. More people have died falling off of roofs installing solar panels this year than have died in.nuclear accidents this decade
Chernobyl and Three Mile aren’t irrelevant, because the public perception is that they aren’t irrelevant.
See also: crime goes down, people vote as if crime is going up.