President Trump is "skeptical of climate change and shows little concern for the environment," writes Ted Nordhaus in a Washington Post op-ed. But if it sounds like the heart of a piece slamming Trump policies, think again. Instead, the founder of the nonprofit Breakthrough Institute—which seeks technological solutions to environmental problems— lauds the president for what he calls a "moon shot" on the environment. The administration has "launched the most ambitious effort to commercialize new nuclear energy technology since the Eisenhower administration's Atoms for Peace initiative," he writes. "The goal is to develop smaller and more nimble reactors to help meet a growing demand for energy, which is partly driven by an explosion of data centers for the artificial intelligence boom."
But even if the stated goal is not to mitigate climate change, the effect is the same, writes Nordhaus, who runs through the particulars of the policy changes underway (including a revision of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's regulatory code). He likens the situation to Trump's first term, when the president spearheaded Operation Warp Speed for COVID vaccines, even if Trump and his supporters don't want to dwell on that topic today. There's no guarantee that the "unprecedented" push for nuclear energy will help, of course, but "having cheap, scalable nuclear energy helps reduce the world's dependence on fossil fuels, provides more clean power and could prove critical in making deep reductions in global emissions." (Read the full column.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
