Won’t a moratorium on coal-fired electric power plants just mean more nuclear waste from nuclear power plants?
Under the Business-as-Usual scenario (no significant effort to reduce GHG emissions) presented by the EIA, the overall projected increase in electricity demand between 2007 and 2020 is about 14 percent.21 Coal is the source for about 49 percent of today’s electricity generation, while nuclear power provides about 19 percent. Under current laws and regulations, coal is projected by the EIA to provide about 50 percent of the electricity in 2020, while the share from nuclear power will decline slightly to about 18 percent. Thus, projected increases for coal and nuclear power are similar. Power from renewable energy sources is projected to increase to about 3.5 percent of the total by 2020, balanced by reductions in natural gas. As the 2007 IPCC Working Group III report noted, however, there are other energy use scenarios that show much more rapid increases in renewable energy, conservation and efficiency. “Both bottom up and top down studies indicate that there is substantial economic pot
