Bomb Iran? Trump needs to think about what happens next.
As another day of violence passes, Israel and Iran seem locked in a spiraling conflict, with Israel's plan still unclear — including about how it expects the United States to participate. President Donald Trump should be wary of being recruited into a new war, let alone an all-out effort to topple the Iranian government.
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Washington Post
17 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Minnesota senator confronts colleague for ‘terrible' post on shooting
Less than 72 hours after the murder of a state representative, Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota sat in the Senate chamber, waiting for one of her colleagues. In a post Sunday, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), appeared to blame the assassination of Smith's friend, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman, on the political left. 'This is what happens,' Lee wrote in on social media. 'When Marxists don't get their way.'
E&E News
18 minutes ago
- E&E News
State lawmakers go big on bills to advance nuclear power
A U.S. 'nuclear renaissance' has been illusory since the term was coined more than two decades ago. But a new force dominating energy markets — surging power demand from AI data centers — has convinced the industry that a revival is, finally, at hand. Nuclear, one of the few electricity generation technologies that's been backed by Democratic and Republican administrations, including President Donald Trump, has quietly gained traction in statehouses from Phoenix to Austin to Indianapolis. Advertisement More than 200 nuclear-related bills were filed in state capitols so far this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) database. Dozens have already been signed into law or are awaiting governors' signatures. The stimulus for action by policymakers is no secret. Unlike in the past, when nuclear power was pitched as a carbon-free backfill for aging coal plants, the selling point today is focused squarely on rising power demand, especially for power-thirsty data centers. Industry advocates have for years extolled the technology's benefits: It doesn't spew greenhouse gases and reactors can usually operate year-round except for refueling outages. But since the nuclear boom of the 1970s and '80s, efforts to jump-start development in the U.S. have flopped because of project delays, spiraling costs, accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima, and scandal. Desperate to bring economic investment and jobs to their states and districts, state legislators of both parties are courting 'hyperscaler' data centers operated by technology titans like Google, Microsoft and Amazon. And lawmakers are keenly aware that power availability is at the top of the list of requirements. Sue Rezin, a Republican state senator from Illinois and co-chair of NCSL's Energy Supply Task Force, has seen the growing interest in nuclear firsthand. 'The conversation around nuclear has changed,' said Rezin, whose northern Illinois district is ringed by three of the state's six Constellation Energy nuclear plants. 'Not so long ago, absolutely no one except for me was speaking about nuclear. It was all about wind, solar and batteries. But now that the economy is changing, which is exciting, because of AI, we've seen this huge need for power.' In Illinois, she said economic development projects looking at her district were looking for 50 to 100 megawatts. 'Now we have companies coming to the area saying that they need up to 1,000 MW.' Leaders with the nuclear industry trade association, the Nuclear Energy Institute, have testified on the bills in legislative hearings, arguing in large part that the tech industry needs reactors. 'They not only need the power, but they have a mandate that it has to be reliable, it has to be clean,' Christine Csizmadia, NEI's director for state governmental affairs and advocacy. 'Nuclear is one of the few (technologies) that can provide those specific attributes.' Nuclear meets AI in Indiana Indiana is one state where lawmakers prioritized legislation to stimulate nuclear development. Lawmakers passed a trio of bills aimed at attracting small modular reactors (SMR), considered by many leaders in the state as a fitting replacement for an aging coal fleet. And Republican Gov. Mike Braun and other state officials see potential for making Indiana a manufacturing hub for the next-generation reactors. In addition to signing the nuclear legislation, Braun issued an executive order to establish a coalition to advance SMRs in the state and attract suppliers. '(Braun) knows the large clean power that can come from nuclear power,' Suzanne Jaworowski, Indiana's secretary of energy and natural resources, said in an interview. 'And he feels that there's no way to achieve emissions goals and really have a balance of clean energy without nuclear being in the mix.' Jaworowski has been a central figure in Indiana's push to embrace nuclear power. And she is no stranger to the industry having served at the Department of Energy during Trump's first term and later as a consultant for SMR developer NuScale Power. She sees the AI race and big tech's growing demand for power as a way to finance a new generation of nuclear reactors that can serve the state for decades to come. She framed the issue to lawmakers by ticking off a list of big electricity users looking to locate in Indiana — semiconductor plants, ethanol refineries, steel manufacturers and data centers, including an $11 billion Amazon project in New Carlisle, Indiana, that needs 2 gigawatts of power. In an interview after the legislation passed, Jaworowski noted that one of the three nuclear bills requires large power loads such as a data center to cover 80 percent of the cost of new development 'rather than putting that on the ratepayers.' One Hoosier State utility already taking tangible steps to pursue a nuclear project is AEP's Indiana Michigan Power (I&M). The company already operates the D.C. Cook nuclear plant to help serve 600,000 customers in northern Indiana and southwest Michigan. I&M is seeking a $50 million federal grant in partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority and others to support an early site permit for a 300 megawatt SMR at the site of its Rockport coal-fired power plant in far southern Indiana, which is slated for retirement in 2028. Rockport was among former coal plant sites identified as prime candidates for SMRs, according to a Purdue University study prepared for the Indiana Office of Energy Development. I&M's interest in nuclear power is driven by the same factors prompting other utilities to examine nuclear energy. It's planning for fast-growing electricity demand in its service area, notably a $2 billion Google data center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In all, the utility has contracts with three large data center customers that will more than double I&M's peak power demand by 2030, said I&M President Steve Baker. 'We're seeing an explosion of electrical demand,' Baker told lawmakers during a hearing earlier this year. 'It has taken 120 years to build our current peak electrical demand with our 600,000 customers between both states. Over the next five years we're going to more than double that.' 'Why is grandma footing the bill?' Not everyone in Indiana is embracing the nuclear push. Kerwin Olson, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition, an Indiana consumer and environmental group, said the group doesn't oppose nuclear technology but is concerned about pushing costs — and risks — onto consumers already struggling with rising energy bills. Olson said one particular provision enacted in Indiana is especially egregious. It allows utilities to track and recover nuclear pre-development costs such as permitting and licensing even before utilities formally seek a permit to build a new reactor. 'They don't have to commit to the project,' Olson said. 'They can collect this stuff just for thinking about it.' While Citizens Action Coalition joined others in a regulatory settlement aimed at requiring large electricity users such as data centers to pay their fair share of new grid infrastructure, that agreement doesn't include potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to assess a potential project, Olson said. The newly enacted nuclear legislation, he said, solely benefits shareholders of utilities such as AEP and their tech giant customers. 'Why is grandma footing the bill for AEP and Google to think about SMRs,' Olson said. Some of the nation's largest utilities, while they believe advanced nuclear and SMRs hold promise for the long term, have stated they don't see it contributing in the near term. Duke Energy in its 2024 long-range energy plan in Indiana noted that SMRs didn't make the cut economically in terms of its 'preferred' energy portfolio over the next 20 years. The nuclear debate in Indiana this spring focused on two competing visions of the future. Proponents envisaged a next-generation reactor, ideally one assembled by Indiana workers, occupying the very piece of land where one of the state's biggest polluters once stood. Opponents focused attention on a former nuclear site two hours away near the small town of Madison, Indiana, a nightmare from decades ago and a sign of what could go wrong. The tale of Indiana's Marble Hill plant is still very much on the mind of some. A headline in The New York Times from January 1984 sums it up: 'Half-Built Indiana Nuclear Plant Abandoned at a $2.5 Billion Cost.' Public Service Co. of Indiana, now a part of Duke Energy, gave up on the plant as costs soared and it ran out of cash to complete construction. It was at the time, according to the Times, the most expensive of 100 canceled nuclear projects nationwide in the wake of the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island. Even if a repeat is unlikely, critics of Indiana's nuclear rush say it would be at least two decades under the best-case scenario before the state could see its first reactor built and producing energy. And the timing mismatch has implications for greenhouse gas emissions — a climate problem that nuclear power is supposed to help address. That's because the surge of electricity demand facing Indiana over the next five years is seen as catalyzing billions of dollars in new natural gas investment and could see existing coal plants continue to operate beyond planned retirement dates. Braun this spring issued an executive order, citing Trump's declaration of a 'national energy emergency,' to evaluate all of Indiana's operating coal plants to see if their operating lives can be extended. Jaworowski said it's part of the governor's 'all of the above' approach to ensuring the state has adequate energy supplies. 'Right now, we need every megawatt we can get on the grid, and so if we have coal plants that are running efficiently and operating in an environmentally safe way, we surely don't want to see those megawatts go off the grid,' Jaworowski said. Olson frames it differently. 'There is an all-out push from the Braun administration to try to move toward SMRs and, meanwhile, keep coal plants open,' he said. 'That's the agenda.' Beyond Indiana, states including Arizona, Arkansas, North Dakota, Utah and Virginia have enacted laws to encourage nuclear power. NEI's Csizmadia said many of the bills heard this spring fit a few broad categories. Some establish task forces or commissions to study the feasibility of nuclear plants. Others define nuclear power as 'clean energy.' Some eliminate nuclear moratoriums established in the 1970s and '80s. The most meaningful of the bills authorize funding or financial incentives, including a $350 million nuclear fund approved by Texas lawmakers. While it's a fraction of the $2 billion initially proposed, it's viewed as a win for the industry. The Texas bill is one of three passed in the Lone Star State to help encourage new nuclear development and make it a larger part of the energy mix. Csizmadia said the industry will need more than just favorable state policies and incentives to jump-start a long-awaited nuclear revival. Federal help and tech company capital is still essential. '[States] can be starters for a lot of these projects,' Csizmadia said. 'They can invest in things like the early permitting, or pre-application costs, or just allow for the companies to have the flexibility to use those funds for whatever costs they incur at the beginning of these projects.' But 'states are not going to be able to complete a nuclear project by themselves,' she added. 'They're going to need help.'
CBS News
18 minutes ago
- CBS News
Nonprofit fears what ICE crackdown means for immigrants in Pittsburgh
On Sunday, President Trump directed federal immigration officers to prioritize enforcement in Democratic-run cities. It followed major protests across the country. Local immigration rights advocates worry the stepped-up enforcements will strain already limited resources and heighten fear in the community. Monica Ruiz is the head of Casa San José, a nonprofit that serves Pittsburgh's Latino immigrants. She said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have captured hundreds of people, both undocumented and documented, across southwestern Pennsylvania since January. "We're seeing pickups every single day, which is a lot more than we used to see," Ruiz said. She called the enforcements "not humane," with some people being apprehended while taking their children to school. "There are people that may have, you know, didn't stop at a stop sign, and instead of getting a ticket, they're getting a deportation," Ruiz said. On social media Sunday, the president directed ICE "to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History." He added that they need to focus on deportations from Democratic-run cities. It comes after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said a few weeks ago ICE would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from 650 during the first five months of Trump's second term. Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. David McCormick reacted to the news on a stop in Pittsburgh Monday while touring the National Energy Technology Laboratory. "Ultimately, we need to work our way through this and do it thoughtfully. I think that's what's happening, I think these ICE, members of the immigration and customs service who are doing this, are doing a great mission, and I think they're doing that with professionalism and empathy," McCormick said. That's not how Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey sees it. In a statement, he said in part, "We have seen ICE indiscriminately detain legal immigrants and U.S. citizens who have been outspoken in their disagreement with administration policy." He also added that his "administration will continue to mobilize our resources to ensure the safety and security of our residents, so that everyone feels safe and welcomed." For Ruiz, she said she fears the president's move will deplete resources, which are already lacking due to funding that's been cut. "We are the city of Mister Rogers, where we're supposed to be nice to our neighbors, but then now it's going to say, well, you know, if these cities don't comply and don't do what they're going to do, we're going to take away resources, blaming it on the immigrants," Ruiz said. Sources told CBS News the Trump administration has directed ICE to halt arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels, due to concerns that the enforcement is negatively impacting those industries.
