The Joe Biden administration can’t achieve its “aggressive” climate goals without nuclear energy, the chairman of the Senate’s energy panel said during a Tuesday hearing.
Speaking with Weapons Complex Morning Briefing during a break from the action at Tuesday’s Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing to vet the Biden administration’s nominee for the Department of Energy’s science undersecretary, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) said that nuclear energy is critical to meeting emissions targets.
“Without nuclear, we have no opportunity whatsoever,” Manchin said.
Asked whether a proposed $6 billion tax credit program for struggling nuclear plants included in the Biden administration’s bipartisan infrastructure bill was sufficient, Manchin said that the government needs “to do everything humanly possible to keep our nuclear plants up and running.”
Manchin has sounded the alarm before about nuclear plant closures. In April he penned a letter to the administration urging them to take action to prevent further shutdowns.
Following the closure of New York’s Indian Point Energy Center April 30 there are still three nuclear plants slated to close later this year — the Byron and Dresden plants in Illinois and the Palisades plant in Michigan. Nuclear plant closures will represent the biggest share of American generating capacity loss in 2021, the Energy Information Administration has said.
