Finally, a REAL Clean Energy Law

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For almost three years now I’ve been reminding VodkaPundit readers that Presidentish Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was really just the Green New Deal Lite in drag. It felt like the reminders were necessary because this White House has been one endless drag show after another. But what if I told you that there’s a bill headed towards the alleged president’s desk that actually will help the environment?

What if I told you that not only will Biden almost certainly sign it, but that Your Friendly Neighborhood VodkaPundit will even applaud him for it?

I’ll understand if you need a minute or two to gather yourself. I’ll give you a moment of privacy.

…and the moment is over. Let’s get to today’s weirdly good news in which Democrats and Republicans got together to do something good for the environment and our energy security.

The IRA was a double-loser. It probably made inflation worse, by increasing our debt and introducing innovation-crushing regulations. And the “environmental” protections amount to little more than multibillion-dollar slush funds for various lefty interests. If you want to reduce carbon, plant more trees instead of cutting them down to make room for taxpayer-subsidized solar farms that produce less power, less reliably, for more money than the old-school power plants they replaced. Also, trees are pretty.

Don’t even get me started on the waste that wind power creates with all of those millions of massive, nonbiodegradable windmill blades, the emissions generated by the production of solar panels, or the strip-mining required to make electric car batteries.

But thanks to a near-unanimous Senate vote Tuesday night — 88-2, and I’ll come back to that in a second — the ADVANCE Act goes to Biden’s desk to be signed into law. The bill will accelerate “the deployment of nuclear energy capacity, including by speeding permitting and creating new incentives for advanced nuclear reactor technologies,” according to Reuters.

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“Expanding nuclear power has broad bipartisan support, with Democrats seeing it as critical to decarbonizing the power sector to fight climate change and Republicans viewing it as a way to ensure reliable electricity supply.”

We can debate whether it’s “critical” to decarbonize the power sector (it isn’t at all critical) but Republicans are on the money about nuclear’s reliability. It should also become cheaper with the ADVANCE Act’s decreased regulatory burdens. And I’ll give rare credit here to Congressional Democrats, too, who for once did the smart thing on energy policy.

John Starkey, director of public policy at the pro-nuke American Nuclear Society called the bill “monumental.” He added that the ADVANCE Act transforms the Nuclear Regulatory Commission into “a 21st Century regulator” and said “this has been a long time coming.”

While there were eight absences or abstentions, just two senators — Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) — voted Nay. Keep that in mind the next time you hear either one of those commie blowhards bragging about how friendly they are to the environment. 

Usually in Washington, “bipartisan” is code for “both sides agreed to screw the American taxpayer.” The ADVANCE Act is the exception.