Nuke power

Back in 1997 President Clinton wanted to be a signatory to the Kyoto Climate Treaty but congress was opposed and the senate voted 95 to 0 against the idea. Treaties require senate approval. In 2016 President Obama signed the Paris Climate agreement using executive action since it was not a treaty. The US is one of the few countries that has reduced CO2 emissions. The biggest polluters China and India have continued to increase emissions. There are steps the US can take to make progress. The best way for electric vehicles to reduce CO2 is to use power from nuke plants. There are 95 nuke reactors in the US with two coming on line this year. The first was built in 1958 and new plants with new technology should be built on a regular basis replacing older plants with old technology. In 1979 an accident at the 3 Mile Island plant allowed radio active steam to escape and people had to be evacuated. No injuries or adverse health effects resulted. Understanding the benefit/risk ratios must be considered and the building of new plants seems a safe way to go since it will allow electric vehicles to operate without increasing CO2 levels. New plants produce low quantities of waste and this is properly stored. The next way to get power for electric cars without increasing CO2 is using wind and solar. Here the trade off is clean air for the US and dirty water for China since the mining of rare earth metals is poisoning the Yellow River in China. The down side to both of these is the time it takes to charge up the batteries. A third way is to use natural gas for transportation. This produces CO2 but at lower rates than gasoline and does not emit heavy metals and acid rain. The US has reduced CO2 levels by moving from coal to natural gas in power plants and the same can be done using natural gas for transportation.