A committed, lifelong Green pounds the table for nuclear power. People familiar with the baseload problem and the unreliable nature of wind and solar won't find the plot surprising, but the detailed studies of California's seasonal use and generation from wind and solar were new to me. And no, batteries are not right around the corner. No mention of electrolysis, hydrogen and fuel cell batteries, however, so lots of room for follow-up.

And the safety of nuclear plants? Well, compared to what? This factoid grabbed me:

Because nuclear plants produce heat without fire, they emit no air pollution in the form of smoke. By contrast, the smoke from burning fossil fuels and biomass results in the premature deaths of seven million people per year, according to the World Health Organization.

Even during the worst accidents, nuclear plants release small amounts of radioactive particulate matter from the tiny quantities of uranium atoms split apart to make heat.

Over an 80-year lifespan, fewer than 200 people will die from the radiation from the worst nuclear accident, Chernobyl, and zero will die from the small amounts of radiant particulate matter that escaped from Fukushima.

As a result, the climate scientist James Hanson and a colleague found that nuclear plants have actually saved nearly two million lives to date that would have been lost to air pollution.

Seven million lives per year? That is a lot of Chernobyls and Fukushimas. However, assuming this is the study, there is a bit of apples-to-oranges going on here. From WHO:

After analysing the risk factors and taking into account revisions in methodology, WHO estimates indoor air pollution was linked to 4.3 million deaths in 2012 in households cooking over coal, wood and biomass stoves. The new estimate is explained by better information about pollution exposures among the estimated 2.9 billion people living in homes using wood, coal or dung as their primary cooking fuel, as well as evidence about air pollution's role in the development of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and cancers.

In the case of outdoor air pollution, WHO estimates there were 3.7 million deaths in 2012 from urban and rural sources worldwide.

Many people are exposed to both indoor and outdoor air pollution. Due to this overlap, mortality attributed to the two sources cannot simply be added together, hence the total estimate of around 7 million deaths in 2012.

The indoor pollution, as well as the level of outdoor pollution, sounds like London in 1952, not the first world today. Nuclear power plants in California won't be a direct help to Third-Worlders burning dung. What is needed is to get developing countries onto a cleaner electric grid. Nuclear would be fine but any modern natural gas plant will be cleaner than coal-, dung- or wood-fired stoves.

Also, a lot of industrial air pollution won't be addressed by cleaner electricity, renewable or otherwise. Steel mills, for example, will remain a challenge.

Nonetheless, welcome aboard! If Greens generally are serious in saying we face a crisis then even more of them ought to re-calibrate their position on nuclear power.

Hmm - a big, critical project uniting left and right... applying American tech and can-do... saving the world... I can hear the Indiana Jones theme right now!

A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER: The NY Times notes that within Republican ranks there is a changing climate on climate change. They cite editorials by Senator John Barrasso (R, WY) who chairs of the Senate Environment Committee, and this from House Republicans Walden, Upton and Shimkus.

All emphasize nuclear power and innovation. On the importance of innovation, Megan McArdle makes an excellent point: The US, Europe and Japan are wealthy enough to subsidize our way to a much lower carbon footprint; India, China and the developing world are not. Unless we are prepared to subsidize them as well as ourselves, we need solutions that are competitive with fossil fuels. And however hard that looks, it is probably harder - as Tyler Cowen notes, if the West cuts back on its use of oil, the resulting price drop will make it more attractive in China and India.

Well, as the great Raylen Givens said in a different context, "I ain't lookin' for easy".