Informed policy debate takes a back seat to special interest politics until reality finally threatens the plausible deniability of the politicians. The only question is how much damage politicians will do before reality forces their hand.

Such is the battle in New York state between those who must keep the lights on, and the politicians pushing the Net-Zero and anti-nuclear ideology of current state law. Gov. Kathy Hochul has painted New York into a corner by ignoring the costs of Green Ideology.

Under state law, utilities are forced to pay sky-high Strike Prices (set by the state) for the “Green” energy they distribute to consumers. A number of Utilities recently requested rate hikes to cover the ever-increasing cost of wind and solar power under the state Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, but Hochul denied their request, obviously hoping voters won’t notice the actual cost of Green Ideology before the next election.

Utility bills will ultimately have to rise, but Hochul will then try to blame “greedy utilities” to deflect attention from her disastrous Green Ideology today.

While Hochul and other U.S. politicians play ostrich with reality, most of the world is waking up to the pending disaster of Green ideology. Thankfully, state agencies that are forced to deal with reality are subtly sounding the alarm in spite of Hochul’s cowardly reticence. Like it or not, our future must include nuclear power in large doses, or New York goes dark.

An electric grid based on wind and solar is neither sustainable nor feasible for baseload power because of its extreme environmental and financial costs and low reliability. Germany and England provide solid examples of this reality as they de-industrialize and drive employment out of their countries.

The threat posed by Green Ideology is tacitly acknowledged in NYSERDA’s recently published “NYS Blueprint for Advanced Nuclear Technology,” which quietly cracks open the door for nuclear power, and admits that a future built on Wind and Solar power is pure fantasy.

Unfortunately the report focuses on using Nuclear for backup power and not baseload power — probably for political reasons to not upset the Wind/Solar lobby.

Nuclear Power is ideal for providing the 24/7 Baseload Power we depend on, so if we have Nuclear, it would be ludicrous to waste any more resources building Wind and Solar installations. Nuclear needs no backup, whereas Wind and Solar require 100% backup (actually 300% if using battery or H2 backup). This is why Wind and Solar are by far the most expensive sources of reliable baseload power.

A recent article herein tried to argue that Nuclear power is a thing of the past with no future, and offered some rather outdated and hyperbolic arguments that stretch credulity. Let us now examine what is really happening around the world.

The U.N.’s Conference of Parties (COP) for the Paris Climate Accord in 2023 and 2024 declared the need to quadruple world-wide Nuclear power by 2050. Of course, many countries were already preparing their Nuclear futures, so maybe the COP is just acknowledging reality.

For the U.S. and New York, the first step toward energy sanity is to end all energy subsidies. People will immediately see the disastrous economic consequences of Wind and Solar if we stop hiding the true costs behind subsidies that exist precisely to hide the costs.

The rest of the world has awakened to reality: The future of human civilization will depend on Nuclear power. There is no other feasible option.

Examples:

— Sweden is developing a major Small Modular Reactor (SMR) park near Stockholm, and has paused Wind and Solar.

— India is planning to add 100 GW nuclear by 2047, and is working with France (already 70% Nuclear) to develop new designs.

— South Korea is planning two large-scale (2GW) sites, and multiple SMR facilities.

— England is planning new SMR installations. (Yes, even England!)

— As of 2024 outside the US, 60 new Nuclear reactors are under construction, 90 are being planned, and 340 are formally proposed. China alone will build 150 over the next 15 years.

Within the U.S., over 40 companies are now contracting to build their own private nuclear power plants to protect themselves from the calamity of a Wind/Solar/Battery based grid. High profile examples include:

— Microsoft, bringing Three Mile Island back to life for 880MW output.

— Alphabet/Google, contracting 500 MW using new Gen 4 SMRs.

— Amazon, developing three separate sites utilizing new Gen 4 SMRs for over 1GW.

— Dow Chemical, contracting for SMRs to produce nearly 1GW.

Over the past few years, U.S. nuclear power output has been roughly 19% of our total electrical output, whereas wind and solar have only been around 10%, even with trillions of dollars of subsidies pushing it. In 2024, the U.S. Energy Department stated we must at least triple our nuclear output by 2050, but rising demand may actually require a quadrupling of it.

Nuclear will reduce the need to burn fossil fuels, thus preserving them for future high-value application in mining, transportation, and materials processing for which there is no practical alternative.

Mark Twain said: “Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.” So too, rumors of nuclear power’s death have been greatly exaggerated by political forces seeking to personally profit from wind and solar subsidies.

Hochul is stuck in a trap of her own creation, but it will be state residents who pay the price for her politics. The longer we wait, the worse it will get.

And if Canada charges us that extra 25% surcharge for their hydro power, it’s still way less than the cost of wind and solar. Take the deal!

Michael Dee is a Silver Creek resident and Scott Axelson resides in Jamestown.