Right now, the US gets roughly 27% of its electricity from coal, 37% from natural gas, 19% from nuclear, and 19% from renewables including hydro.
I think we agree that coal is the most serious problem. It produces twice as much C02 as natural gas with the rest producing close to zero.
If the administration were to say, we can zero out our use of coal in 12 years but at a cost of say doubling our use of nuclear with the rest coming from renewables and natural gas, would you accept it?
I am fully aware of the issues with nuclear power and would much prefer massive use of renewables. I would love to see far more renewables, but the Question is would you accept a lot more nuclear power to zero out coal?
edit.
after writing this, I got a lot of feedback that said nuclear is too expensive in addition to its many other ills. It would be possible to build comparable,capacity wind with complementary natural gas for less than a similar amount of nuclear capacity and the nuclear power plant will take a lot more time coming on line in a perfect scenario.
www.eia.gov/...