CASEnergy > Press Room > Statement Regarding U.S. Senate Hearing on Global

The climate change debate has made one thing abundantly clear: Global warming is an environmental reality that requires action. Our nation must step up to the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and I commend the Committee and Chairman Boxer in particular for holding today’s hearing.

As the co-founder and former head of Greenpeace, and an environmentalist, I feel compelled to speak to the clean air benefits of nuclear energy and the need for our nation to embrace nuclear energy as a key component of any greenhouse gas mitigation strategy.

Nuclear energy plays the single-largest role in the U.S. electric industry’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions reductions. According to the newly released annual report to the U.S. Department of Energy from Power Partners—a voluntary partnership between DOE and the electric power industry—nuclear energy accounted for 54 percent of greenhouse gas reductions reported, the equivalent of taking 100 million automobiles off the road.

Furthermore, nuclear energy has the smallest environmental impact of any clean-air electricity source. Nuclear power produces no controlled air pollutants during daily operations. According to the University of Wisconsin, the life-cycle emissions of nuclear energy are lower than coal, natural gas, hydropower, biomass, and solar. The only electricity sources with lower life-cycle emissions are wind and geothermal.

Nuclear energy accounts for 90 percent of all electric utility reduction in carbon dioxide emissions since 1973.

At present, approximately 30 percent of America’s electricity comes from sources that produce no air emissions or greenhouse gases: nuclear energy, hydroelectric power, wind and solar. Nuclear energy alone produces electricity for one of every five U.S. homes and businesses. That means 60 million homes in America use electricity generated from nuclear energy supplies.

There is no single solution to the United States’ rising electricity demands. But, with 50 percent more electricity needed by 2030 to keep all aspects of American life powered, a plan needs to be put in place now to address this demand in a manner that protects our environment.

In its October 2006 report, A Progressive Energy Platform, the Progressive Policy Institute urges the nation to “Expand nuclear power…It produces no greenhouse gas emissions, so it can help clean up the air and combat climate change. And new plant designs promise to produce power more safely and economically than first-generation facilities.”

I agree with PPI. Nuclear energy is clean, safe, affordable and reliable—and needs to be part of the climate change solution. This is something that all Americans should embrace on a bipartisan basis.

I encourage this Committee and the Congress to take the appropriate steps to ensure the expansion of nuclear power so we can truly achieve the emission savings that our nation and the world so desperately need.

Thank you for your consideration,

Dr. Patrick Moore

Co-Founder and former leader, Greenpeace

Co-Chair, CASEnergy Coalition

The CASEnergy Coalition is an advocacy group dedicated to bringing together consumers, conservationists, academics, health care advocates, labor organizations, environmentalists, and community leaders who believe greater use of nuclear energy is critical to a U.S. energy policy that will meet our nation’s needs today and in the future.