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A comment on Shutting down nuclear power could increase air pollution: study. Parent comment

Re:Shutting down nuclear power could increase air pollution:... by ZeroGravitas on Tuesday April 11, 2023 @06:27AM (#35523121)
That was true for the first 15 or so years of this century, it's no longer true as Wind and Solar have caught up and have been neck and neck in added output.

The last couple of years are noisy (gas actually went down and coal bounced back up one year) but the long term trend is for wind and solar to continue to extend their lead.

edit: to be clear, because this is a little ambigous

> Natural gas is by far the fastest growing energy source in the US by total output.

Gas is still the biggest energy source for electricity in the US by far, but it's not the fastest growing by far. Definitely not in percentage terms but also recently, not in absolute change either.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-production-by...

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Re:Shutting down nuclear power could increase air pollution:... by AnnikaL on Tuesday April 11, 2023 @01:12PM (#35528066)
Even so, replacing fission reactors (negligible air pollution) with a mix of wind, solar, and natural gas will still probably increase air pollution. Of course, there are arguments that this is an acceptable tradeoff for cost or safety reasons.
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