Wednesday, May 5, 2021

"Nuclear On Verge Of ESG Inclusion: White House To Subsidize Existing Plants"

If only we could find a way to harness the energy of the exploding heads at EarthFirst!*

From ZeroHedge:

In a move that may infuriate environmentalists and delight investors in uranium stocks (who already saw a surge in their portfolios on Monday following our weekend report "This Is A Game-Changer For Uranium Stocks") Reuters reports that the White House has privately signaled to lawmakers and stakeholders in recent weeks (so as not to reveal to the broader public) that it supports taxpayer subsidies to keep existing nuclear facilities from closing, bending to the reality that it needs these plants to meet its deliriously aggressively climate goals (which were dissected recently by Bloomberg in "The U.S. Will Need a Lot of Land for a Zero-Carbon Economy").

The new subsidies in the form of "production tax credits," would likely be swept into President Joe Biden's multi-trillion-dollar legislative effort to invest in the nation's infrastructure and jobs, the Reuters sources said. More importantly being on par with other more "green" sources of energy, it likely means that it is now just a matter of time before even the most rabid members of the ESG crew are forced to admit nuclear to their cool crowd. Wind and solar power producers already get these tax rebates based on levels of energy they generate.

As revealed last month, Biden wants the US power industry to be emissions free by 2035, a schedule which is unachievable without the benefit of nuclear power which as shown below has among the lowest land area footprints...

... and unless the US wants to be covered in reneweable sources of energy, it will have no choice but to support and expand its current NPP arsenal.

Biden is also asking Congress to extend or create tax credits aimed at wind, solar and battery manufacturing as part of his $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan.

The US has more than 90 nuclear reactors, the most in the world, and the business is the country's top source of emissions-free power generation. But as discussed here previously, these aging plants have been closing, some as recently as last month, due to rising security costs and competition from plentiful natural gas, wind and solar power, which are rapidly becoming less pricey.

Losing more nuclear plants could make Biden's zero-emissions goal challenging, if not impossible, analysts have said.

And the punchline: a source quoted by Reuters engaged in the talks and familiar with the White House thinking, said what may be the magic word for far greater gains ahead for uranium stocks, namely that "there's a deepening understanding within the administration that it needs nuclear to meet its zero-emission goals."....

....MORE

*Related, March 2013:
Fracking For Uranium
I think a couple folks at the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth just had strokes.

Recently:
May 4
Trans-Uranic Express: The First Uranium Boom and Lessons For Today's Investor
April 25
"Climate Change Activists Need To Get Serious About Nuclear Power"
March 30
EIA: "Less electricity was generated by coal than nuclear in the United States in 2020"
March 25
That Time The U.S. Designed A 2500 MPH, Locomotive Sized, Nuclear-Ramjet-Powered Drone Loaded With Hydrogen Bombs

The last one may have been mis-filed