Nuclear Energy at the Forefront of States’ Clean Energy Policies

In the absence of federal direction on climate change policy, many states have created their own policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions. New York, for example, has introduced a program that compensates nuclear power plants for the net environmental benefits of the electricity that they generate. Illinois has followed in New York’s footsteps with a nearly identical program that also rewards nuclear plants for their ability to generate electricity without producing any greenhouse gas emissions. But the industry has responded to these state programs with legal challenges. In a recent paper, Ari Peskoe, a Fellow at the Harvard Law School Environmental Law Program Policy Initiative, argues that courts reviewing these challenges should find that New York and Illinois’s programs do not conflict with federal law. New York and Illinois’s programs use similar mechanisms to provide financial support to nuclear plants, Peskoe notes. Both programs reward in-state…

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