Because the issue isn’t climate change, only political control.

Numerous Democrats who are outspoken supporters of sweeping government action on climate change voted against a bipartisan bill that facilitates no-carbon nuclear power on Wednesday.

The Atomic Energy Investment Act, sponsored by Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina and Democratic Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, passed the House by a 365-36-1 bipartisan vote, with 29 lawmakers not voting on the legislation. The bill would take several steps to make it easier to permit and build zero-emissions nuclear generation capacity in the U.S., but numerous prominent Democrats who advance alarmist climate discourse still voted against it despite significant projected increases in U.S. energy demand.

Specifically, the bill would simplify the permitting process for nuclear energy and related activities, reduce government licensing fees for advanced nuclear reactors and increase the efficiency of the required environmental review process for nuclear power development, according to its text. The bill would also create a test program for the Department of Energy (DOE) to commit to long-term purchase agreements for commercial power generated by nuclear facilities if it becomes law. 

This really goes to show that Democrats are not only interested in virtue signaling but also using issues, like climate change, as a means to gain political power in order to control people’s lives. As the Daily Caller points out, nuclear energy is described as a zero-emission clean energy source by the U.S. Department of Energy.

One would think any rational person who wants to reduce carbon emissions would support using nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels since nuclear energy use is emission free. But this is one of many instances where the left demonstrates that they are anything but rational because their ultimate aim is political power by any means necessary.

That includes Democrat’s environmentalist allies who oppose using nuclear energy too. However, as Michael Shellenberger points out, environmentalists oppose nuclear power because doing so would mean their pet industry, renewable energy, would no longer be needed. Fortunately, the legislation in question passed and will be forwarded to the Senate. Hopefully, the upper house of Congress will pass Atomic Energy Investment Act in order to send it to Biden to sign off.

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