Former Navy nuclear submariner Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Republican of Texas’ 2nd CD, wrote “A Nuclear Frontier” in The Hill March 5. In concluding his op-ed, Crenshaw said: “For all the hysterical talk from the Green New Dealers of a renewable-only future, the simple truth remains: Renewables will never be reliable enough to power the modern world. If we want to tackle climate change, reduce emissions, and power the grid, then we need the proper mix of energy. We need to make sure that nuclear not only stays on the grid, but grows on it.” The Representative had also started out with a nod to climate change dogma: “The Sun and wind have self-evident limitations that many refuse to acknowledge. If the Texas grid was solely or even mostly reliant on renewables last month, our situation would be far more dire. So how do we achieve both a massive reduction in emissions while also maintaining reliable baseload energy? Nuclear.”
But in the course of the op-ed Crenshaw also gives a nod to development: “Last year, the Trump administration overturned a 2009 OPIC restriction on nuclear reactor financing which allows our Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to fund nuclear energy projects abroad. Allowing the DFC to fund nuclear energy projects will help the United States — not Russia and China — fill the rising demand for nuclear energy. Removing this outdated restriction received bipartisan support across the political spectrum, for good reason.”
Crenshaw further reviews the other successful actions supporting advanced nuclear reactors of the Trump Administration, and spells out the bipartisan bills in Congress which grew out of those actions.
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/541857-a-nuclear-frontier?rl=1
