“The reason to keep those nuclear plants operating is obvious: they play a critical role in reducing emissions from the electricity sector. Indeed, the three power plants slated for closure produce about the same amount of electricity as all of the solar capacity in California. (More on that in a moment.) Furthermore, those reactors are providing thousands of high-paid jobs. They also provide stable, baseload power to the electric grid. And unlike solar and wind energy, they don’t require huge amounts of rural land, nor do they need new high-voltage transmission capacity to accommodate their output.”