June 6 marks the “shot heard round the world”
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - June 6 marks the 20th anniversary of Sacramento voters going to the polls to shut down Rancho Seco, a nuclear power plant operated by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) about 25 miles southeast of the city.
It was the first and only time voters shut down a nuclear power plant – but it has been called the “shot heard round the world” since it echoes to this day.
Votes against nuclear power continue to this day. Since the historic Rancho Seco shutdown vote, more than two-dozen states have legislated or passed referenda requiring that utilities meet a specific target – usually ranging 15-25 percent of the electricity supply – for sustainable energy resources by a specific date.
Power that will be available from these “renewable portfolio standards” (RPS) sources is now routinely cited as a reason not to pursue more nuclear reactors.
Additionally, more 900 elected mayors of cities including Denver, Chicago, Portland, Austin, and Salt Lake City have signed the MayorÂ’s Initiative on Climate Change to use sustainable energy resources to power their jurisdictions to prosperity.
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Scotland’s Wind Farms Generate Enough Electricity to Power Nearly 4.5 Million Homes
GLASGOW - Wind turbines in Scotland produced enough electricity in the first half of 2019 to power every home in the country twice over, according to new data by the analytics group WeatherEnergy. The wind farms generated 9,831,320 megawatt-hours between January and June — equal to the total electricity consumption of 4.47 million homes during that same period.
The electricity generated by wind in early 2019 is enough to power all of Scotland’s homes, as well as a large portion of northern England’s.
“These are amazing figures,” Robin Parker, climate and energy policy manager at WWF, which highlighted the new data, said…
