A nuclear plant's closure was hailed as a green win. Then emissions went up

[hunter]

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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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/20/nuclear-plant-closure-carbon-emissions-new-york

This is the reality. Building more wind turbines and solar panels will not solve the problem and there are no magical energy storage technologies just over the horizon, "by 2030," or ever.

There is more than enough gas in the ground to destroy what's left of the natural world as we know it. It seems we are hell bent on extracting it and burning it as people claiming to be "green" look the other way because the economic viability of their wind and solar follies depend on it.