This week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez participated in a debate ahead of New York’s upcoming primary and general elections, and made some news by breaking with her political mentor, Sen. Bernie Sanders on an important aspect of the Green New Deal.
According to the Washington Post’s Dave Weigel, “Something that stood out” in the debate was “@AOC saying the Green New Deal 'leaves the door open for nuclear.'”
Here’s the clip:
According to Weigel, this “stood out” but also wasn't news— he said AOC “[ha]s always said so.”
He was right the first time, though, and the policy shift is good news.
Let’s note for a second a major news event this week that a bunch of Americans won’t have paid attention to, but which Texans and especially Floridians will have: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is expecting an “unusually active” hurricane season this year.
Why the extra, or extra-strong, hurricanes? You guessed it: Climate change.
What does nuclear have to do with this?
First of all, there’s the fact that it’s CO2-emissions free.
Second, there’s the fact that nuclear power plants can stay operational through hurricanes when other power sources— including fossil fuel-related ones— cannot. Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas in 2017 shut oil refineries, messed with solar and wind power generation, threatened natural gas explosions and actually triggered the Arkema chemical plant explosion. But throughout the hurricane and in its aftermath, the South Texas Project nuclear plant kept two reactors running just fine.
So it’s good that AOC has moved on the topic, and let’s be clear, her debate comment definitely does represent movement.
When the Green New Deal (GND) was released, her office told NPR that it would include a transition away from nuclear energy, a fact sheet her staff gave to reporters said the GND wouldn’t involve investing in new nuclear plants, and her office posted a fact-sheet on her website that said ”It’s unclear if we will be able to decommission every nuclear plant within 10 years, but the plan is to transition off of nuclear and all fossil fuels as soon as possible.”
The actual GND resolution put forward by Sen. Markey wasn’t as anti-nuclear, but that didn’t seem to be because AOC was on board with it. Her spokesperson seemed to hint that removal of nuclear could follow, saying "We just wanted to let the resolution stand on its own for now.”
The point here is, with hurricane season coming rapidly, and this season expected to be bad, it’s a great time for AOC to be re-assessing her nuclear power stance.
We can debate whether, if push came to shove, she’d actually support new nuclear reactors or avoiding decommissioning old ones, but for now, just having her in a place where she’s not attacking nuclear like her mentor, Sen. Bernie Sanders, is positive.
Sanders, everyone should remember, is one of the key people who ran nuclear out of Vermont and for several recent years, during cold snaps, the state has had to burn actual oil to keep the lights on and temperatures tolerable.
That’s definitely not the kind of generation that will help stop climate change, and it’s certainly not what you want to be doing in the middle of a hurricane, when it’s right on top of you.
Nuclear will remain a controversial topic among progressives, but these comments show it really should not be to the degree it is. Climate change is real, it’s the biggest environmental threat, and priorities have to be put in place.