Tuberville: 'The United States needs more nuclear energy'

U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville has continually said President Biden’s overregulation of American energy is driving up prices and killing jobs.

In a speech from the floor of the Senate last week, Tuberville underscored that while the U.S. is a global leader in nuclear power production – there’s potential for much more.

He criticized the current administration’s opposition to nuclear energy as over-politicized and nonscientific.

“We are now in the coldest time of the year. The demand for energy is going up as people try to keep warm. This is placing a strain on our power grid across this country. This Administration obviously has no solution for this problem. I think they’re adding to the problem,” Sen. Tuberville (R-Auburn) said.

“The Biden Administration is on a crusade to make us dependent on unreliable renewable resources like wind and solar – and I’m not against wind and solar, I think it is very good. I think it’s feasible that we invest in that. There’s a role that it plays in our economy. But we can’t depend on wind and solar. It’s not possible. The sun doesn’t shine every day. And the wind doesn’t blow every day.”

Nuclear power plants are capable of operating 365 days of the year, 24 hours every day – regardless of weather conditions. This contrasts sharply with solar and wind energy, which are inherently intermittent.

“Our energy grid needs to stay running for 24 hours,” Tuberville said. “What a thought?”

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that in 2020, nuclear power plants in the United States had an average capacity factor – a measure of how often a plant is running at maximum power – of about 93%, which is one of the highest among all energy sources.

In comparison, solar and wind energy had capacity factors of 24.7% and 35.4%, respectively.

“My state of Alabama’s energy workers are keeping the lights on for people across our country. Right now, as we speak, there are thousands of Alabama energy workers off the Gulf Coast exploring for oil and gas,” Tuberville said in his speech.

“I’m also proud that Alabama is America’s fifth-largest producer of nuclear energy. We have two nuclear plants and five nuclear reactors. The Tennessee Valley Authority operates Browns Ferry in Athens, Alabama, which is TVA’s largest nuclear plant. The plant produces one-fifth of the TVA’s energy which covers a lot of the South. It directly supports 1,500 jobs and powers more than 2 million homes. In the Wiregrass of Alabama, Alabama Power runs Plant Farley, which produces about a fifth of Alabama Power’s electricity.”

Counter to left-leaning claims that renewable forms of energy are exclusively the most environmentally-friendly forms of large-scale power generation, nuclear produces virtually no air pollution or greenhouse gasses during operation.

According to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the United States avoided more than 471 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2020. That’s the equivalent of removing 100 million cars from the road and more than all other clean energy sources combined.

“It’s time we got to work on nuclear energy,” Tuberville said.

“The polls show the American people are becoming more and more supportive of nuclear power. There’s no doubt about that. A clear majority of the American people want and need more nuclear plants. This should be a bipartisan issue. Let’s look out for the American people. It’s good economics. It’s good energy policy. It’s good for our environment and it’s long, long overdue.”

Grayson Everett is the state and political editor for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @Grayson270