The ClearPath team is on a mission to tackle one very tangled question: “How do we make our energy sector cleaner AND more reliable, while making our economy and country stronger?” What we’ve found and begun to document here illuminate the at-times disconcerting and outrageous realities and obstacles, but also some very hopeful signs that the U.S. and the world can progress towards a cleaner and more prosperous future. Join our team of experts on our soapboxes below.
One of the more important advantages to expanding our existing and advanced nuclear fleet may surprise some: providing a pipeline for our top-skilled Navy and other military veterans to get the high-paying and rewarding jobs they deserve.
If I said that preserving our existing nuclear power plant fleet should be a top 5 American priority, you would think I was crazy. Next to jobs, the economy, terrorism and national security, something so mundane would pale in comparison, right? But nuclear energy is interwoven with those top priorities.
There’s a promising technology to make fossil fuels clean, and yet environmentalists cling to their “leave it in the ground” mentality. Adding carbon capture technology to our power plants and industrial factories can be a win for our environment and economy, but green groups say this technology is not true, not now, and not affordable.
Coal is not a four-letter expletive in India. It’s become an act of survival. If there was ever a prime example of the need for U.S.-led carbon-capture technologies, it’s India. Of the 1.2 billion people who lack access to electricity today, roughly 240 MILLION are in India. That’s about America’s entire adult population.
Imagine you’re a nuclear entrepreneur, like Jack Devanney, with a world-beating idea. Jack had built 440,000-ton oil tankers, and realized that he could cheaply build nuclear plants just like he’d built those tankers: in a shipyard assembly line. So he created ThorCon. But before building his first plant to test the idea, Jack faced a choice.
For the longest time, the left has owned this debate; calling for wind and solar, battery storage and energy efficiency. These technologies are a growing part of our energy mix but will only be a portion of our future supply. A cleaner energy future must be based on nuclear, hydropower and clean fossil fuels – workhorses that provide reliable baseload electric power 24/7.
I want conservatives to be leaders on clean energy – from nuclear to hydropower to clean fossil fuels – both to make the environment better and strengthen real conservative leadership.
