Getting traction on Green New Deal policies at the federal level won’t be easy—but new governors in the Midwest can make progress on climate and economic priorities right away. Here’s how.
James's Latest Posts
Photo: Montgomery County Planning Commission
What the New UCS Report on Nuclear Plants Means for Illinois
November 8, 2018 12:01 AM EDT
Today UCS released a new report entitled The Nuclear Power Dilemma that examines the economic viability and performance of most of the 60 nuclear power plants operating in the United States as of July 2018. The report also analyzes what electric generating resources are likely to replace these nuclear plants if some of them were to abruptly retire from service. So what did the report find and what does it mean for a state with so much nuclear power like Illinois? Read more >
More than 150 Lake County residents march to call on NRG Energy to set a retirement date for its coal-fired-power plant. Waukegan, near NRG coal plant, November 2015. Photo by Karen Long MacLeod for CPLC
Unmasking the Waukegan Coal Plant Reliability Myth
November 2, 2018 2:46 PM EDT
Last week UCS released a new report entitled Soot to Solar: Illinois’ Clean Energy Transition. Among our key findings was that the coal-burning power plant owned by NRG in Waukegan, Illinois, can be retired with no impact on electric grid reliability. When asked about our report, NRG implied similar sentiments as the above in saying it hadn’t had the opportunity to review our study or our “assumptions on impact to grid reliability.” In this post, I highlight Soot to Solar’s analysis of electric reliability and retiring the Waukegan plant to further explain our process and what we found. Read more >