Coal pivoted to pushing for nuclear plants because build-times on nuke plants are ~20 years and they’d be the obvious filler mid-term. That’s why there’s so much pro-nuke rhetoric despite renewables being cheaper and faster to make: it’s their only chance to stay relevant.
Note: if we had started building more plants 20 years ago and pulled a France (mostly nuclear grid), hell yeah, that would be great and we wouldn’t be where we are now. But this last-minute drive is heavily poisoned by coal just trying to stay relevant.
Coal pivoted to pushing for nuclear plants because build-times on nuke plants are ~20 years and they’d be the obvious filler mid-term. That’s why there’s so much pro-nuke rhetoric despite renewables being cheaper and faster to make: it’s their only chance to stay relevant.
Note: if we had started building more plants 20 years ago and pulled a France (mostly nuclear grid), hell yeah, that would be great and we wouldn’t be where we are now. But this last-minute drive is heavily poisoned by coal just trying to stay relevant.
and, perhaps most importantly: subject to extreme NIMBY-ism which basically relegates them to perpetual planning
Meh, whatever gets us there faster, solar is a lock in anyway nothing anyone can do could stop it now, wind needs help though.