On Monday, hard-left Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), ever looking for an opportunity to thunder that the end is near, waxed apocalyptic over climate change, referring to fires in Oregon, California, Siberia, flooding in New York City and Detroit while venting on Twitter:
Oregon is burning. California is burning. Siberia is burning. People are drowning in New York City. Detroit is flooding. There is drought all over the world. This is a climate crisis. The United States must lead the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel.
Oregon is burning. California is burning. Siberia is burning. People are drowning in New York City. Detroit is flooding. There is drought all over the world. This is a climate crisis.
The United States must lead the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 13, 2021
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) responded by pointing out what he believed Sanders’ true agenda was as he tweeted, “Ok calm down Bernie. If you believed reducing emissions was this urgent and would somehow mitigate bad weather, then you wouldn’t oppose nuclear energy and carbon capture, would you? But you do, because for you it’s actually NOT about climate change, it’s about control.”
Ok calm down Bernie. If you believed reducing emissions was this urgent and would somehow mitigate bad weather, then you wouldn’t oppose nuclear energy and carbon capture, would you?
But you do, because for you it’s actually NOT about climate change, it’s about control. https://t.co/1Ypnvx8Var
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) September 13, 2021
As the website feelthebern.com notes, Sanders believes nuclear energy must be banned and America must stop building new nuclear power plants.
Sanders’ 2020 campaign website stated that as president, Sanders would “phase out the use of non-sustainable sources. This plan will stop the building of new nuclear power plants and find a real solution to our existing nuclear waste problem. It will also enact a moratorium on nuclear power plant license renewals in the United States to protect surrounding communities. We know that the toxic waste byproducts of nuclear plants are not worth the risks of the technology’s benefit, especially in light of lessons learned from the Fukushima meltdown and the Chernobyl disaster. To get to our goal of 100 percent sustainable energy, we will not rely on any false solutions like nuclear, geoengineering, carbon capture and sequestration, or trash incinerators.”
The World Nuclear Association website states:
From the outset, there has been a strong awareness of the potential hazard of both nuclear criticality and release of radioactive materials from generating electricity with nuclear power. As in other industries, the design and operation of nuclear power plants aims to minimize the likelihood of accidents, and avoid major human consequences when they occur.
There have been two major reactor accidents in the history of civil nuclear power – Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi. Chernobyl involved an intense fire without provision for containment, and Fukushima Daiichi severely tested the containment, allowing some release of radioactivity. These are the only major accidents to have occurred in over 18,500 cumulative reactor-years of commercial nuclear power operation in 36 countries.
The National Energy Technology Laboratory says of carbon capture:
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fossil Energy Program has adopted a comprehensive multi-pronged approach for the research and development (R&D) of advanced CO2 capture technologies that have the potential to provide step-change reductions in both cost and energy requirements as compared to currently available technologies.
The success of this research will enable cost-effective implementation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies that can be applied to the existing fleet of fossil fuel-fired plants, new plants, industrial facilities, and the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. Cost-competitive carbon capture technologies have the potential to support the fossil sector while advancing U.S. leadership in high efficiency, low-emission (HELE) generation technologies.