Trump wants to bail out nukes and coal plants because some old guy from Ohio is going bankrupt. $17 billion a year. This doesn’t build anything new. This doesn’t advance our actions. This simply takes your money and gives it to a dying industry.
The whole of the solar power industry was $20-30 billion in 2017 in the USA. The incentives given to the industry – mostly in the form of a tax credit – are one offs that lead to projects being built that last for decades. This incentive will be given to the nukes every single year to keep them open for a decade or two more.
On the other side of the coin – I do want these nukes to stay open because more often than not, in these places the nukes will be replaced with gas. And CO2 free. Really though we ought have a greenhouse gas tax on all coal/gas electricity production and we wouldn’t need to bail the nukes. But we’re soft still and we’re going to try this path.
As an aside – the Attorney General of Massachusetts says this program by Trump is illegal.
SOURCE: Trump administration’s proposal that would require grid operators to buy power from nuclear plants could cost US consumers up to $17 billion a year in “artificially high electricity bills” and adding subsidies for coal-fired plants could potentially double that, according to the anti-nuclear Nuclear Information & Resource Service.