Dramatic increases in electricity costs over the past four years as a result of the Biden-Harris administration’s energy policies may be sparking a resurgence in nuclear power generation.
As The Wall Street Journal reported this week, the Palisades nuclear plant in Covert, Michigan, is set to become the first nuclear plant in the world to reopen after beginning the decommissioning process. The plant was shuttered in 2022 but is now expected to be back online by October of next year.
The renewed interest in nuclear is being driven in large part by the fact that consumer electricity prices have spiked nearly 30 percent since Biden and Harris took office – a direct result of “Net Zero” policies and a coordinated regulatory war on domestic oil and natural gas production. In some parts of the country, electricity prices could rise by 20 percent or more next year alone without a change in policy.
Natural gas prices have increased even faster, rising nearly 70 percent between January of 2021 and 2023. Although prices have eased since then, they are still more than 35 percent higher than when Biden took office.
On his first day as president, Biden took a string of actions devastating the American oil and gas sector, including canceling the Keystone XL pipeline and halting new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters. Biden and Harris have also embraced Democrats’ war on the coal industry. In the first quarter of 2024, the U.S. produced just 129.9 million short tons of coal, about a 13 percent decrease year-over-year from 2023.
Recognizing the potential crisis scenario the country could be facing, former President Donald Trump has made “unleashing American energy” a pillar of his 2024 campaign. Trump has specifically pledged to “unleash energy production from all sources, including nuclear, to immediately slash inflation and power American homes, cars, and factories with reliable, abundant, and affordable energy.”
That plan has a chance to be a big winner with voters – not just Republicans. According to a new poll out this week, nearly half of Democrats favor expanding nuclear energy throughout the country. While Democrat politicians have historically opposed nuclear energy in favor of unreliable wind and solar, many of their voters appear to be open to Trump’s plan.
“American consumers fully grasp the impact of radical climate policies on the U.S. economy,” Professor Fergus Lütenmaier, an advisor at the Nuclear Energy Agency in the late 1980s, told me. “The low energy prices during Trump’s first term should serve as a litmus test for every administration’s energy policy. Under Biden, Americans’ jobs and household finances are under threat.”
Economics professor Masao Takushima, who advised former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone on energy and industrial policies, told me that the facts are clear: “Green energy cannot replace fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, certainly not in even 20-30 years.”
“Unsustainable renewables,” he warned, “will further damage the U.S. economy.” Trump’s commitment to nuclear, along with reviving the U.S. oil and gas industry, has a chance to save it.
Trump’s first term saw a number of noteworthy achievements in nuclear energy, including breaking ground on the nation’s first small modular reactor (SMR).
SMRs are designed to be smaller in size and power output compared to traditional nuclear reactors. Their modular design allows for factory assembly, after which the parts can be transported to the installation site, making them significantly easier and faster to construct.
This modularity also means that multiple SMRs can be combined to meet the energy needs of a particular location, offering flexibility in deployment and scalability.
SMRs are designed with advanced safety features, often incorporating passive safety systems that require little or no human intervention in case of an emergency. This makes them a safer and more cost-effective option for expanding nuclear energy, particularly in remote or smaller communities that don’t need the large-scale energy output of traditional reactors.
According to British researchers, who are also pioneering the technology, a fleet of small reactors could “boost industrial strategy, create thousands of high-skilled, well-paid jobs and could contribute approximately 15 percent more value to the U.K. economy.” The consensus among the experts I interviewed for this column is clear: the U.S. should prioritize investment in these affordable and safe reactors.
Nevertheless, SMR technology is still in its infancy, and the country will still need significant energy from fossil fuels. “An energy mix that includes various inexpensive sources is crucial for energy security and reliability,” Professor Takushima told me.
If Trump emerges victorious this November, it could supercharge the nuclear energy revival that is already beginning to take shape. Add to this Trump’s commitment to making the United States the world’s top oil and gas producer again, and Americans may soon be spending a lot less to keep the lights on.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
Remember back in 2007 that Obama said “electricity prices would necessarily have to skyrocket” under his proposed transformational agenda to address so-called climate change? Like everything else Obama said, the MSM fawned over it and the vast majority of Americans just shrugged their collective shoulders as they didn’t fully understand he was actually telling you that your costs for energy and ultimately everything else were about to start rising dramatically. The more you replace cheap, reliable power generation (natural gas, hydro, existing nuclear and yes even coal, although coal was already being phased out in favor of cheaper natural gas) with far more costly and intermittent wind and solar, for purely political purposes, the more you need to maintain an on-line, alternate base load power supply to cut in when the sun doesn’t shine, or the wind doesn’t blow. That all costs huge sums of money that only gets more costly the more you unplug the cheap and reliable power generation systems and replace them with more costly, less reliable and shorter-lived solutions (wind and solar). Those costs all ultimately get passed on to you one way or another.
Back in the 2007, all one only needed to look at was what was already taking place all across western Europe at the time to see what embracing the fiction of man-made global warming and its disastrous policies would lead to in terms of energy costs. At that time in Europe, most countries had already seen, after about a decade of these exact same ruinous policies that we were stupid enough to adopt here, an increase in their electricity and overall energy costs of approximately 50% in 2007. Since then of course, the cost of both electricity, as well as overall energy costs in western Europe have continued to rise steadily and dramatically. Today the cost of electricity across most of western Europe is approximately 300% higher than it was at the end of the 20th century. Of course, that has led to a significant economic and societal impact to all their countries, as both businesses and jobs have been negatively impacted.
One would think the American people would have learned by now where this whole “green new deal” is designed to take us, as country, and taken corrective actions. Some have learned and don’t like it, while many continue to be as clueless and uniformed as they have been for a long, long time.
As for nuclear, here’s something most of you may not be aware of. While China is still building a new coal-fired power plant each and every week to meet their growing economic needs (goal being at least several hundred by 2030), they are also in the process of building a total of 200 nuclear reactors for power generation over the next 10 years. Construction projects are already under way in this area. That would make them the largest user of nuclear power in the world. While China may be putting up sprawling wind and solar farms all across their country for PR purposes to encourage the Western nations to continue down this road of buying more and more Chinese solar panels, Chinese wind turbines, and endless metric tons of Chinese lithium batteries for American and EU mandated EV’s, they are NOT stupid. Far from it. They understand that economic growth requires reliable power that does NOT consume vast amounts of valuable farmland for food production. Another thing the Europeans have only recently started to acknowledge is a problem with huge amounts of farmland being leased out to build sprawling solar and wind farms.
On a side note, SMR’s may make good sense in this country as electricity demands for cloud data centers, distributed AI server centers and large business centers increase going forward. Already data centers and AI server centers are being planned that would be located next to dedicated power sources to supply them 24×7. Especially as we unplug more and more natural gas and coal power plants from the electrical grid and replace it with less reliable wind or solar. The issue we, as a nation have, is we have been anti-nuclear for so long that we no longer have the highly specialized and skilled labor and technical expertise we had in nuclear technology decades ago. Plus, the technology has changed significantly since the last time any sort of nuclear power plant was built in this country. While SMR’s will be built almost completely in dedicated factories, and then simply installed on site, this is NOT the type of manufacturing as say building cars or planes.
Study after study written by ISO NE [there are 16 ISO areas in the US] has concluded that solar and wind cannot replace the grid, the power supply is too intermittent. Oil and gas are strategic commodities and should be treated as such; nuclear is a very viable option for maintaining the grid. The installation of offshore wind turbines is creating an enormous offshore industrial junkyard and definitely has impacted marine life in east coast waters. The 6 New England states could have hooked into the Québec Hydro grid 30 years ago. The Boston area currently pays electric charges that are 578% higher than those of the entire Montreal metro grid system, which is three times larger than that of Boston’s. No one has said what the per kw charge might possibly be for the offshore wind turbine power supply. We guess between $2-3/kw. Currently, the wind turbine development leases south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket cover more than 1.2 million acres, an area larger than the state of RI, which covers 790,000 acres. This is a travesty which will take centuries to undo.
American citizens, not the illegals, hater, dweebs and politicians. have assumed what is not theirs. Who the hell in the numb squad running “US OVER and making us so soft we ain’t a threat. BUT, when the millions of Americans [remain silent}, it seems to the chinese, russians, north koreans and tiny others that we have no guts. Will act.
WWII Americans had courage, stepped forth . . . BIG TIME!!! The Biden, Harris and democrats have sold us out and “wE THE PEOPLE” ALLOWED IT. Wake up Americans, take notice that the asshats rule (in their mind) so show differently.
This is common speak (word on the street) from American citizens, Now, get togethee!
With the outstanding engineering America has in building very safe nuclear power plants it’s amazing how a few loudmouths have kept America from building enough nuclear power plants to power our entire grid. Nuclear power is very cheap, very clean and very safe. Biden and Harris pushed their “green” with wind generators and solar panels, all not made in America.
I have watched my electricity costs rise from 6.7 CENTS PER KILOWATT HOUR (COAL FIRED POWER PLANTS) TO IT’S CURRENT 12.6 CENTS PER KILOWATT HOUR WHILE ALL THE LIARS IN WASHINGTON, D.C. KEPT SAYING ELECTRICITY COSTS WOULD BE CHEAPER WITH “GREEN”.
MY MONTHLY UTILITY BILL DOESN’T LIE, BUT CLOWNS IN D.C. COULDN’T TELL THE TRUTH IF IT HIT THEM IN THE FACE. IT IS WAY PAST TIME TO CLEAN OUT WASHINGTON, DOWNSIZE IT BY 70% AND FIRE POLITICAL LIARS. BY SO DOING WE COULD ALSO BEGIN TO LOWER OUR NATIONAL DEBT AND INCREASE THE VALUE OF OUR MONEY, THE DOLLAR.
Let’s not give the dems the power any longer let’s put it where it belongs. The power in electricity, gas, coal and oil. While working on nuclear energy. By building these SMR plants and then work alongside on climate change. But turning off all oil and gas drilling and coal mining while we have nothing to replace it with is not a plan. TRUMP/VANCE in 2024 to keep the lights on and gas in our cars.
High hopes. Trump won’t be able to fund it without a Republican Congress but evennthen from the first minute after being sworn in, Democrats will hold impeachment after impeachment proceedings and he’ll be too busy fighting those. Assuming of course, rules and laws are adapted again to get Madame Joy in first!
Trump 2024 all the way.
We should have went nuclear long ago but the do gooders x that out also. This world is in a real mess and we don’t have the brain power to stop it. Voting also we vote color and that has to stop.
Well, no surprise here. We all want our own best interests to be considered. Bidenomics et al worship the gods Moloch and nature, we have seen how it affected us all. NOW is the time for a Big change. Let’s get President Trump back in office and get out country back at the top of the productive nations, the alternative is our doom.
Glad to see that we are seeing a renewed interest in nuclear energy. My electric bill this year alone went up 20% and our usage didn’t change. The policies of this administration have caused just about everything to become more expensive. When a company “gets a chance” to raise rates and blame it on rising costs, you know we are in for a royal screwing. I don’t mind businesses making money, it’s what makes the world go round, but businesses have gotten super greedy. Now, if they make 100 million dollars, they want to make 200 million dollars with goals of making a billion dollars within a few years. It has gotten completely out of control. I can’t stand the new caps on water bottles, they’ve been just about cut in half in half, to save a portion of a penny and my fingers can’t grip them. It’s like someone without long fingernails trying to pick up a hat pin off of the floor. Ahhhh, greed is evil, it really is. Bring back nuclear energy but instead of keeping our electric bills as high as they are, actually give the consumer a price cut. Imagine a price cut nowadays? Lol, a large portion of society would think ti was a scam because they’ve never seen a price cut, lol. God help us all.
WE gotta get Trump in there. Kyle L.
Nuclear power has been blocked for decades not by starry eyed dreamers but by a coterie of radicals who have a vision for humanity that does not include cheap energy. Their comprehensive vision also does not include single family housing or car ownership, electric or gas. They want people confined to high rises and dependent on public transportation or bicycles. The cover story is the green hoaxes but the heart of the issue is hatred of people, especially free people.
This is a good article. What is said here about SMRs is accurate.
In addition: Unlike large solar & wind farms, which involve prohibitive right-of-way issues and enormous cost of long transmission line runs to existing power grid, SMR’s can be built on former power plant sites and other locations where power grid connections are pre-existing. This greatly reduces costs of new, SMR power-generating assets that will generate continuous, stable, clean power.
TMI is now 45 years behind us, with much learned and no incidents in the US since then. SMRs will cost much less, and will have useful lives of about 80 years. Their power will be clean, continuos, unaffected by weather, and subject only to short refueling outages about every 2 years.
A new age approaches.
I can offer the life of me understand how anyone can vote Democrat. Everything they touch turns into a dumpster fire. The cost of living through the roof government regulation everything is insane and they expect people to vote for more of that. The scary part is there are people that will. They must have a lot more money than I do and be totally stupid. Kamala Harris has absolutely nothing between her ears. Every time I see her I think of the old sitcom Mr Ed and the theme song A horse is a horse of course of course runs through my head. So why the long face Kamala?
Vote TRUMP – VANCE 2024 to save us
Yes, we’re headed to more nuclear power!! We must develop the THORIUM Nuclear Reactors as they are much cleaner than Uranium!!!
Solar and wind are fine for individuals but can in no way work for cities or states. The Marxists don’t like nuclear any more than fossil fuels. That’s because they don’t WANT the US to succeed!
YES!
If we really want clean, safe, reliable, and inexpensive electrical power, there is no better current alternative to nuclear. I’m a big advocate and have been for many years. Cost per megawatt of power generated is cheaper than any of the alternatives, it is clean and safe. Waste disposal has been the only issue and the science to recycle the waste was under development long ago.
Hope so & Yes for: AI, Energy, alone
The abandonment of nuclear power in the USA was a gross misjudgment. The psychosis of global warming associated with Carbon Dioxide is a similar misjudgment. It is not clear that the USA can overcome these errors in judgement given the current lack of political veracity.
Russia hit a Nuclear plant in Ukraine in the early part of Ukraine war & that is a major concern for all countries.
No matter what sources provide electric power,Top Priority is USA must secure our power grid so that it cannot be attacked by our enemies.
It doesn’t matter if a lot of dims support a lot of Trumps policies. Their blind, irrational hatred of Trump, “trumps” everything else. They could agree 100% with Trump’s policies and disagree with 100% of Kameltoe’s policies and still vote for Kameltoe. You could pit a dead Stalin or Mao against Trump and they would vote for them over Trump. TDS is a totally irrational condition and cannot be argued against by rational facts and figures.
Appeasement or Peace through strength
If I remember correctly wasn’t that part of the bidens plans to sell the plans for the sir’s to china?
There hasn’t been one politician in the USA that has truly understood the nature and importance of energy in our life and culture in my lifetime. Perhaps Max Plank in times past.