In response to Steve Duin’s June 11 column “A green-energy win in Klamath County”: The project possibly pencils out only if you eliminate, politically and legislatively, competing low-carbon solutions. The developer, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners [Added link] tries to do just that on its website, describing the need for pumped storage to meet West Coast states’ 100% renewable mandates, where the options are limited to wind, hydropower and solar. Well, last time I checked, California’s was a 100% “clean” energy mandate, nuclear included, and Gov. Gavin Newsom recently stated his openness to revisiting the decision to shut down the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. Meanwhile, the European Union has recently expanded its definition of green energy to include nuclear energy, and France has committed to several new nuclear power projects. These are all heavily vetted actions.
Solar and wind have a role, but I am disturbed when renewable proponents try to shortcut the critical public vetting over how we are actually going to reduce emissions. Along those lines, I respectfully suggest more coverage of NuScale Power and TerraPower, two Pacific Northwest-based nuclear power development companies.
Jim Harlan, Portland
