New York State is enacting a Clean Energy Standard that will at least temporarily save its nuclear plants located upstate. While the tack has wide support among power companies and the labor movement, it is opposed by green energy groups that think state monies would be better invested in wind and solar.
While nuclear energy is a base-load fuel that runs around the clock and that, generally, is carbon-free, it is unable to compete with cheap natural gas in today’s markets. The paradox, of course, is whether to let free markets work or whether to slant the playing field to achieve environmental standards. To this end, the question doesn’t just apply to nuclear energy but also to green fuels, and coal.
“This is one of the most impressive, progressive and aggressive renewable energy programs a state has ever seen,” says Merrill Kramer, an energy and project finance attorney for Sullivan & Worcester in Washington, in an interview. “The Clean Energy Standard includes nuclear energy because it would be too expensive and too aggressive to achieve success without it.”

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