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A nuclear plant’s closure was hailed as a green win. Then emissions went up (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

313 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Shuttering of New York facility raises awkward climate crisis questions as gas – not renewables – fills gap in power generation

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.

Castigated for its impact upon the surrounding environment and feared for its potential to unleash disaster close to the heart of New York City, Indian Point nevertheless supplied a large chunk of the state’s carbon-free electricity.

Since the plant’s closure, it has been gas, rather then clean energy such as solar and wind, that has filled the void, leaving New York City in the embarrassing situation of seeing its planet-heating emissions jump in recent years to the point its power grid is now dirtier than Texas’s, as well as the US average.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago (16 children)

Hard to imagine how anyone who's concerned about climate change could see shutting down a carbon-free energy source as a "green win".

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (11 children)

There's a legitimate argument that we can't grow our way out of climate change, and the real solution to our emissions problem is degrowth and descaling of our obscene rates of consumption. In that sense, had they been closing the plant with the expectation of drastically reducing energy demand, it might have made sense.

Its not as though nuclear energy produces no waste, just extremely low levels of CO2 waste. But if you're just going to replace energy demand (and continue to grow energy supply) with new coal/gas consumption, who are you fooling except yourselves?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (8 children)

That's not a legitimate argument because the West combined emits less CO2 than just China. The economy of the West is growing, but emitting less carbon because of more green power sources, one of which being nuclear

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

A lot of that is still the Wests carbon, just because our products and materials are now coming from China doesn't mean we are absolved from the responsibility of those emissions. This is why reduce was meant to be the biggest part of reduce, reuse, recycle, and this means degrowth.

Also the economy of the West is shrinking because of the depletion of easy to access fossil fuesl, despite renewables.

Another interesting article about one of the most polluting sectors, the steel industry. It explains that green power sources might mean more fossil fuels not less and it also talks about why China can't adopt clean steel production to the same level we can.

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