JD Vance Actually Made A Good Point About Clean Energy On Joe Rogan's Podcast

The GOP vice presidential nominee suggested concern over climate change should outweigh fears over nuclear waste.

JD Vance touted the benefits of nuclear power on Joe Rogan’s podcast and proposed spending as much as it costs to build an aircraft carrier to provide the United States’ electrical grid with enough equipment to quickly restore service after a major blackout.

During a three-hour interview published Thursday morning, the Republican vice presidential nominee repeatedly criticized environmental groups for what he saw as the hypocrisy of opposing the most efficient and abundant form of carbon-free electricity while also describing planet-heating emissions as an existential threat.

“If you think that carbon is the most significant thing — [that] the sole focus of American civilization should be to reduce the carbon footprint of the world — then you would be investing in nuclear in a big way,” Vance said.

“When you say that, the environmentalists say, ‘Well, you’ve got all these poison rocks to deal with afterwards,’” he added, referring to radioactive waste left behind when a reactor refuels with freshly enriched uranium. “Well, the poison rocks problem is a less significant problem than the carbon problem, if you think we’re all going to go extinct in 100 years. So let’s deal with the most pressing problem.”

Nuclear power stations produce relatively miniscule amounts of physical waste per unit of electricity generated, compared to the mountains of toxic ash spewed by coal plants or the unrecyclable wind turbine blades and solar panels now piling up in landfills.